Dan

“After you died I could not hold a funeral,
And so my life became a funeral.”
― Han Kang, Human Acts

“I've been afraid even to go out in my snowfall, let alone my blizzard.”
― James A. Michener, Alaska

“We have explicit expectations of ourselves in specific situations–beyond expectations; they are requirements. Some of these are small: If we are given a surprise party, we will be delighted. Others are sizable: if a parent dies, we will be grief-stricken. But perhaps in tandem with these expectations is the private fear that we will fail convention in the crunch. That we will receive the fateful phone call and our mother is dead and we feel nothing. I wonder if this quiet, unutterable little fear is even keener than the fear of the bad news itself: that we will discover ourselves to be monstrous.”
― Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin

“Sorry to disappoint you,” said Charles. “I had thought about inviting a bunch of seven-year-olds to dinner but then I remembered that tonight was really rather important and our future happiness might depend on the outcome.”
“So he’s not coming?” I said, just to clarify.
“No,” said Charles. “He’s not.”
― John Boyne, The Heart's Invisible Furies