Michael

“Uncle Jihad used to say that what happens is of little significance compared with the stories we tell ourselves about what happens. Events matter little, only stories of those events affect us. My father and I may have shared numerous experiences, but, as I was constantly finding out, we rarely shared their stories; we din't know how to listen to one another.”
― Rabih Alameddine

“He keeps us waiting rather than wishing for him. I feel it a matter of perfect indifference whether he arrives at any moment or not at all.” — Lady Harriet Cavendish of George Beau Brummell”
― Ian Kelly, Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Man of Style

“As far as I'm concerned, religion is public transportation I never use.”
― Kamel Daoud

“For humans-trapped in biology-there was no mercy: we lived a while, we fussed around for a bit and died, we rotted in the ground like garbage. Time destroyed us all soon enough. But to destroy, or lose, a deathless thing-to break bonds stronger than the temporal-was a metaphysical uncoupling all its own, a startling new flavor of despair.”
― Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch