Radhika Singh

“A wave of hurt broke over Francie and left her weak when it was passed. Another wave came, broke and receded. She found her way down to the cellar of her house and sat in the darkest corner on a heap of burlap sacks and waited while the hurt waves swept over her. As each wave spent itself and a new one gathered, she trembled. Tensely she sat there waiting for them to stop. If they didn't stop, she'd have to die--she'd have to die.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“If I were a different kind of person, I might say that this whole incident is a metaphor for life in general: things get broken, and sometimes they get repaired, and in most cases, you realise that no matter what gets damaged, life rearranges itself to compensate for your loss, sometimes wonderfully.
"Actually - maybe I am that kind of person after all.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“Cassidy and I wouldn’t be friends if we met today. She’s blunt, even when she shouldn’t be. She’s cynical to the point of perpetual gloom. Her interest in culture begins and ends with fashion magazines—hence the gloom. She’s still the best friend I’ve ever had. We’re there for each other in a way no one else is. That’s what counts, not the music she listens to or the books she doesn’t read.”
― A.O. Monk, I Am Not Thirteen

“He had gone from nothing to an embarrassing bounty. He would remember, then, Harold’s claim that life compensated for its losses, and he would realize the truth of that, although sometimes it would seem like life had not just compensated for itself but had done so extravagantly, as if his very life was begging him to forgive it, as if it were piling riches upon him, smothering him in all things beautiful and wonderful and hoped-for so he wouldn’t resent it, so he would allow it to keep moving him forward.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life