Diane

“Do you think it’s possible to become a different person?"

She shakes her head, biting her bottom lip, and blinks so hard she can’t see the road in front of her. "No. But it’s possible to become a better person." Then he holds out a trembling hand. She holds it as if he were three years old, as if he were dangling over the edge of a cliff.”
― Fredrik Backman, Us Against You

“Culture isn't just what we encourage but what we allow to happen.”
― Fredrik Backman, Us Against You

“You asked "Am I a good mother?," always the same, the same...
...answer that you were seeking, when you should have known that
You were the strength inside
You were all that I could become
You taught me the value of "sorry," but the only time you retreated was when you were taking aim
You taught me the humility of tears but never let me apologize for existing
You didn't dress me up in fragile garments, you gave me armor
You taught me that daughters don't have to have dreams-we can have goals.”
― Fredrik Backman, Us Against You

“This moment would define my memory of that night, and of the many nights like it, for a decade. In it I saw myself as unbreakable, as tender as stone. At first I merely believed this, until one day it became the truth. Then I was able to tell myself, without lying, that it didn’t affect me, that he didn’t affect me, because nothing affected me. I didn’t understand how morbidly right I was. How I had hollowed myself out. For all my obsessing over the consequences of that night, I had misunderstood the vital truth: that its not affecting me, that was its effect.”
― Tara Westover, Educated