Azra

“Ja! - Teška riječ, koja u očima onih pred kojima je kazana određuje naše mjesto, kobno i nepromjenjivo, često daleko ispred ili iza onog što mi o sebi znamo, izvan naše volje i izvan naših snaga. Strašna riječ koja nas, jednom izgovorena, zauvijek vezuje i poistovjećuje sa svim onim što smo zamislili i rekli i sa čim nikad nismo ni pomišljali da se poistovjetimo, a u stvari smo, u sebi, već odavno jedno.”
― Ivo Andrić, Prokleta avlija

“I bargained with Life for a penny,
and Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store;

Life is a just employer.
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial's hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid”
― Jessie B. Rittenhouse

“Gradually the waiting began to feel less like waiting and more like this was simply what life was: the distracting tasks undertaken while the thing you are waiting for continues not to happen.”
― Sally Rooney, Conversations with Friends

“Male fantasies, male fantasies, is everything run by male fantasies? Up on a pedestal or down on your knees, it's all a male fantasy: that you're strong enough to take what they dish out, or else too weak to do anything about it. Even pretending you aren't catering to male fantasies is a male fantasy: pretending you're unseen, pretending you have a life of your own, that you can wash your feet and comb your hair unconscious of the ever-present watcher peering through the keyhole, peering through the keyhole in your own head, if nowhere else. You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are your own voyeur.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride