Jasmine Dove

“How quickly contempt can dissipate when faced with the pathetic humanness of another person. You see inside them for even the briefest moment and suddenly empathy blows through. A dark sky cleared by a hard rain.”
― Stephen Markley, Ohio

“Oh, it's wonderful to be your age,' continued Anna. 'I know and remember that blue haze, like you see on the mountains in Switzerland. The haze covering everything at that blessed point when your childhood is coming to an end, and the path leading from that huge, carefree, happy circle becomes narrower and narrower, and it is both jolly and terrifying entering that enfilade, even though it is bright and beautiful...Who has not been through that?”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“They'd both learned that a memory is a fact that has been dyed and trimmed and rinsed so many times that it comes out looking almost unrecognizable to anyone else who was in that room or anyone who was standing on the grass beneath that telephone pole.”
― Mary Beth Keane, Ask Again, Yes

“Thirteen years old, he walked around for weeks thinking of those words, feeling the way you do when you're outside with your friends and it starts to rain, but you're too far from home to run for it. So you just get soaked and marvel at why you don't do such a thing all the time.”
― Stephen Markley, Ohio