Jessica Mackey

“She wished to be unafraid and for the world to be good. Neither thing seemed possible.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

“I imagine happiness like needlepoint. Dots of color, precious moments placed next to each other as time passes, small joys doled out over a lifetime.”
― Marta Molnar, The Secret Life of Sunflowers

“There’s this thing that happens, let’s say at school where a bunch of guys are in the bathroom, at the urinal, laughing about some dork that made an anus of himself in gym. You’re all basically nice guys, right? You know right from wrong, and would not in a million years be brutal to the poor guy’s face. And then it happens: the dork was in the shitter. He comes out of the stall with this look. He heard everything. And you realize you’re not really that nice of a guy. This is what I would say if I could, to all smart people of the world with their dumb hillbilly jokes: We are right here in the stall. We can actually hear you.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

“People thought that tragedy made you wise, that it automatically elevated you to a higher, more spiritual level, but it seemed to Rachel that just the opposite was true. Tragedy made you petty and spiteful. It didn’t give you any great knowledge or insight. She didn’t understand a damned thing about life except that it was arbitrary and cruel,”
― Liane Moriarty, The Husband's Secret