Penny

“But these were days of self-fulfillment, where settling for something that was not quite your first choice of a life seemed weak-willed and ignoble. Somewhere, surrendering to what seemed to be your fate had changed from being dignified to being a sign of your own cowardice. There were times when the pressure to achieve happiness felt almost oppressive, as if happiness were something that everyone should and could attain, and that any sort of compromise in its pursuit was somehow your fault.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“If the war had taught her anything, it was to take nothing for granted: that it wasn’t safe to put off what mattered. Life could snatch away the things you treasured, and there was no getting them back.”
― M.L. Stedman, The Light Between Oceans

“It’s the first day of the year when the words ‘unseasonably’ and ‘mild’ are bandied around. That day in spring when you can just about get away with wearing flip-flops even though only last week it was biker boots and cable tights weather.”
― Zoe Folbigg, The Note

“Bomber said that the wonderful thing about books was that they were films that played inside your head.”
― Ruth Hogan, The Keeper of Lost Things