Carol Chen

“What’s the use of temptations if we don’t yield to them?”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“You deserve to be here. You deserve to exist. You deserve to take up space in this world of men.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy

“We belonged to each other, but had lived so far apart that we belonged to others now.”
― André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name

“In the east," she says after a time, her gaze still downcast, "there is a tradition known as kintsukuroi. It is the practice of mending broken ceramic pottery using lacquer dusted with gold and silver and other precious metals. It is meant to symbolize that things can be more beautiful for having been broken."
"Why are you telling me this?" I ask.
At last she looks at me. Her irises are polished obsidian in the moonlight. "Because I want you to know," she says, "that there is life after survival.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue