J. N.

“Here is this! Here is this! Ecco Roma! Bursting out of the sun, streaking through space, skirting Venus, just over eight minutes old, but eternal, too, infinite—here comes the light, nameless and intangible, streaming 93 million unobstructed miles through the implacable black vacuum to break itself against a wall, a cornice, a column. It drenches, it crenellates, it textures.”
― Anthony Doerr, Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World

“For me high society is only a means to an end. It offers vulgar but invincible weapons, and if I want to be loved someday, I have to possess them.”
― Marcel Proust

“Let's remember why you started reading this guide. You wanted hope for your home. Unfortunately, hope isn't as ambiguous as it sounds. It isn't something that floats around in the sky until it settles on the top of your head.
It's something you work for, it's something you discover after you put in some work. And really, that's not unfortunate! Unfortunate things are out of your control.”
― Dana K. White, How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind

“Every married person he knew seemed desperate to chivvy others into matrimony, no matter how poor an advertisement they themselves were for the institution.”
― Robert Galbraith, Troubled Blood