Asma Zia

“He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“There was little Hiroko Tanaka hadn’t learnt about the shameful resilience of the human heart.”
― Kamila Shamsie, Burnt Shadows

“Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“So many things you promise yourself you won't get used to, and then you do.”
― Kamila Shamsie, Burnt Shadows