Y. S.

“as soon as a work of art is of practical use, betrays a purpose or a tendency its beauty vanishes.”
― August Strindberg, The Red Room

“Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.”
― Clement Clarke Moore, Twas the Night Before Christmas

“She smelled sometimes of lemons, sometimes of sage, sometimes of roses, sometimes of bay leaf. At times I would no longer hear what it was she was saying; I just liked to look at her mouth as it opened and closed over words, or as she laughed. How terrible it must be for all the people who had no one to love them so and no one whom they loved so, I thought.”
― Jamaica Kincaid, Annie John

“In the winter everyones hate was bare if you looked. She saw hate in the icicles that hung from her window; she saw it in the dirty slush on the streets; she heard it in the hail that scratched her window and bit her face; she could see it in the lowered heads hurrying to warm homes …”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Last Exit to Brooklyn