Mary

“Fear, poverty, alcoholism, loneliness are terminal illnesses. Emergencies, in fact.”
― Lucia Berlin, A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories

“You must observe, when you write to any one, it is for them, and not for yourself: you must endeavour, then, to write to please them, and not give them your thoughts.”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Dangerous Liaisons

“There isn't a woman who doesn't love the Perfect Man; In their wild dreams they see nothing but charms and virtues and gleefully deck out the men of their choice in all these qualities; but these glittering robes fit for a God often drape an abject model; but whatever he is, no sooner have they dressed him up than, dazzled by their own handiwork, they prostrate themselves to adore him.”
― Laclos, Pierre Choderlos de, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“A wife", he says, "should have no secrets from her husband."
"I don't have any secrets," I tell him.
"The ribbon."
"The ribbon is not a secret; it's just mine.”
― Carmen Maria Machado, Her Body and Other Parties: Stories