Mimi

“Perhaps there is another kind of writing, I only know this one, in the night, when anxiety does not let me sleep, I only know this one. And what is devilish in it seems to me quite clear. It is the vanity and the craving for enjoyment, which is forever whirring around oneself or even around someone else...and enjoying it. The wish that a naive person sometimes has: "I would like to die and watch others crying over me," is what such a writer constantly experiences: he dies (or he does not live) and continually cries over himself”
― Franz Kafka

“2 November. This morning, for the first time in a long time, the joy again of imagining a knife twisted in my heart.”
― Franz Kafka, Diaries, 1910-1923

“That night on TV, I saw the tattoo I wished my life had warranted. If you have not known suffering, love me. A Russian murderer beat me to it.”
― Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

“One of Lucy's admirers took to her, apparently."

"Took to her?" echoes William, his own feelings for Sugar causing him to construe the phrase benignly.

"Yes," said Bodley "With her own riding crop."

"Beat her very severely."

"Particularly about the face and mouth."

"I understand all the fight's gone out of her now."

"Well, as you can imagine," he says. "Madam Georgina doesn't have high hopes. Even if she's willing to wait, there will be scars."

Ashwell, eyes downcast, is picking at the lint on his trousers. "Poor girl," he laments.

"Yes," smirks Bodley. "How are the fighty maulen.”
― Michel Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White