Petra

“You had once asked me if I was afraid of death.

I said I was afraid of not living.

I don’t want to eke out my life like a resource in short supply. The only selfish life is a timid one. To hold back, to withdraw, to keep the best in reserve, both overvalues the self, and undervalues what the self is.”
― Jeanette Winterson, The PowerBook

“... we read novels because they give us the comfortable sensation of living in worlds where the notion of truth is indisputable, while the actual world seems to be a more treacherous place.”
― Umberto Eco, Six Walks in the Fictional Woods

“The only circumstances in which I would write a roman a clef would be if I'd lost my fucking car keys.”
― Will Self, Dorian

“If all your responses to a book have already been duplicated and expanded upon by a professional critic, then what point is there to your reading? Only that it’s yours.”
― Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot