Ida Ottesen

“Loneliness hardened in Arthur's stomach....
Frequently he could feel his loneliness: he could locate it with his fingers and if pushed too hard, it hurt. If he ate quickly, it hurt. He drank a lot of water, to flush it out, but it never came. He kept expecting to see it after he'd visited the lavatory. Small and blue. Afraid. He did not know what he would do with it. He did not know what he would do without it.”
― Emma Stonex, The Lamplighters

“Why should the past be any guarantee of the future?”
― Natalie Haynes, A Thousand Ships

“Who could love a coward?' She had once heard a woman say. Laodamia knew the answer. Someone for whom the alternative is loving a corpse.”
― Natalie Haynes, A Thousand Ships

“He loses his wife so he stirs up an army to bring her back to him, costing countless lives and creating countless widows, orphans and slaves. Oenone loses her husband and she raises their son. Which of those is the more heroic act?”
― Natalie Haynes, A Thousand Ships