Nandini

“She envied him. She envied him his faith that there would always be a place, a home, a job, someone else for him. She envied him that attitude. She almost resented his having it.”
― Patricia Highsmith, Carol

“She would give him the benefit of the doubt, as she always did: her experience had taught her that the names we gave to others, and the things we accused them of, often said more about us than they did about them.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The House of Unexpected Sisters

“She smiled at the memory. Her father, her dearest daddy, had become late many years ago now, but she still thought of him every day. Now she remembered his words about ‘the look’ and reminded herself that she used that expression about people, too. Some people had ‘the look’ and others did not. It was something to do with confidence, she thought. You had the look if you knew who you were, what you were doing, and why you were doing it. That bull had the look because he knew that he was good at being a Brahman bull; he knew what was expected of him, and he was not plagued by any doubts. Doubts were the enemy of the look – that was very clear. If you were not sure that you should be doing what you were doing, it showed – and you then became one of those who did not have the look.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The House of Unexpected Sisters

“One’s just supposed to conform. I know what they’d like, they’d like a blank they could fill in. A person already filled in disturbs them terribly.”
― Patricia Highsmith, Carol