Kinia

“I do not wish to explain my passion—that would imply that it was a mistake or some disorder I need to justify—I just want to describe it.”
― Annie Ernaux, Simple Passion

“Art is not one great act of creation, but many small ones. When you read one of my poems, you fail to see the weeks of careful work it took me to build it—the thinking, the scratched-out words, the pages I burned in disgust. All you see, in the end, is what I want you to see. Such is politics.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Priory of the Orange Tree

“I have searched for my mother's love in all the corners of the world.”
― Annie Ernaux, I Remain in Darkness

“Laya took him by the shoulders, and the force of her grasp stopped him. "This Jannart - the man you loved," she said, looking him dead think he would want you to give up, or carry on

"I don't want to carry on! Do you not understand? Does nobody in this world understand, damn you? Is no one else haunted?" A quiver of wrath entered his voice. "Everything I did - everything I was – everything I am, is because of him. He was someone before me. I am no one without him. I am tired of living without him at my side. He left me for that book and, by the Saint, I resent him for it. I resent him every minute of every day." His voice cracked. "You Lasians believe in an afterlife, don't you?"

Laya studied him.

"Some of us, yes. The Orchard of Divinities," she said. "He may be waiting for you there, or at the Great Table of the Saint. Or perhaps he is nowhere at all. Whatever has become of him, you are still here. And you are here for a reason.’ She held a callused palm to his cheek. ‘You have a ghost, Niclays. Do not become a ghost yourself.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Priory of the Orange Tree