Rita

“Let’s not name it. Once you name something, you have to define it: say what it is and isn’t. Not to mention maintenance. All the relationships with names – parent, sister, husband, lover – come with maintenance. All that effort keeping it to what it’s supposed to be. Shouldn’t we allow ourselves at least one unnamed, undefined close relationship in our lives? A free-standing, wild-card arrangement. How about it, Joseph? How about you just try to make me happy, and I’ll try and do the same for you?”
― Ronan Hession, Panenka

“but no room with a view can replace a friend.”
― Valérie Perrin, Three

“We get so used to the stories we tell about ourselves. This is why we sometimes need to find ourselves in the stories of others.”
― Michele Filgate, What My Mother and I Don't Talk About: Fifteen Writers Break the Silence

“Imagine you’ve been unable to move for years because your fist is clenched inside a container, and to manage to pull your hand out, to free yourself, you just need to let go of what you’re clutching in your clenched fist . . . You open up your hand, you lose what’s inside it, it falls to the bottom of the container, but you are free.”
― Valérie Perrin, Trois