“Every time I go back to Rome, I go back to that one spot. It is still alive for me, still resounds with something totally present, as though a heart stolen from a tale by Poe still throbbed under the ancient slate pavement to remind me that, here, I had finally encountered the life that was right for me but had failed to have.”
― Call Me by Your Name
― Call Me by Your Name
“Come, I'll take you to San Giacomo before you change your mind,' I finally said. 'There is still time before lunch. Remember the way?'
'I remember the way.'
'You remember the way,' I echoed.
He looked at me and smiled. It cheered me. Perhaps because I knew he was taunting me.
Twenty years was yesterday, and yesterday was just earlier this morning, and morning seemed light-years away.
'I'm like you,' he said. 'I remember everything.'
I stopped for a second. If you remember everything, I wanted to say, and if you are really like me, then before you leave tomorrow, or when you're just ready to shut the door of the taxi and have already said goodbye to everyone else and there's not a thing left to say in this life, then, just this once, turn to me, even in jest, or as an afterthought, which would have meant everything to me when we were together, and, as you did back then, look me in the face, hold my gaze, and call me by your name.”
― Call Me by Your Name
'I remember the way.'
'You remember the way,' I echoed.
He looked at me and smiled. It cheered me. Perhaps because I knew he was taunting me.
Twenty years was yesterday, and yesterday was just earlier this morning, and morning seemed light-years away.
'I'm like you,' he said. 'I remember everything.'
I stopped for a second. If you remember everything, I wanted to say, and if you are really like me, then before you leave tomorrow, or when you're just ready to shut the door of the taxi and have already said goodbye to everyone else and there's not a thing left to say in this life, then, just this once, turn to me, even in jest, or as an afterthought, which would have meant everything to me when we were together, and, as you did back then, look me in the face, hold my gaze, and call me by your name.”
― Call Me by Your Name
“I want him to look in the mirror and smile, not scowl. I need him to not think of himself as a monster. I need him to see the real him, because if he doesn’t pull himself out of the villain role, it will destroy him, and I’ll just be left with ashes. I just needed to get it all out because I feel like I’m drowning, and it’s hard to keep myself above water,especially when I’m fighting against the current to save him rather than myself.”
― After Ever Happy
― After Ever Happy
“If he knew, if he only knew that I was giving him every chance to put two and two together and come up with a number bigger than infinity.”
― Call Me by Your Name
― Call Me by Your Name
“You won’t know how lucky you are to be able to spend your life with the other half of your soul until you have to spend your life without them.”
― After Ever Happy
― After Ever Happy
Lea’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Lea’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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Art, Biography, Classics, Mystery, Poetry, Religion, Romance, Spirituality, Thriller, and Young-adult
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