romulus reads

“As someone who judges people every day, given my age I’ve demonstrated an embarrassing inability to judge myself. I didn’t realise that I only ever revealed a few sides of myself to those around me, instead wandering around believing others thought me to be as vulnerable as I felt. It’s because you look the way you do, nobody believes you could possibly feel any weakness, my ex once told me.”
― Helga Flatland, En moderne familie

“Ever child instinctively heads toward dirt and filth unless you pull it back. Mother chose a career for Erika when her daughter was still young. It had to be an artistic profession, so she could squeeze money out of the arduously achieved perfection, while average types would stand around the artist, admiring her, applauding her.”
― Elfriede Jelinek, The Piano Teacher

“Politics is everywhere; there can be no escape into the realms of pure art and thought or, for that matter, into the realm of disinterested objectivity or transcendental theory.”
― Edward W. Said, Representations of the Intellectual

“Corruption flourished in the shadows. Unofficial hierarchies and centuries of accumulated rules and traditions made it impossible for newcomers to understand the esoteric rituals and power plays, let alone tackle galactic problems with any speed.”
― Alexander Freed, The Mask of Fear