Jenn Malzone

“I'd catch Makoto gazing at me dreamily, with his big clear eyes and his surprisingly thick brows drawn into a neat line, and I would know that he was looking at the glow of my soul, or whatever it was.
Then all of a sudden, I would feel free from all the anxieties that weighed on my mind...by a strong, bright, rose-colored light.
It was only much later that I learned the light came from me, and what Makoto had done was to be its witness and protector.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, Dead-End Memories: Stories

“I often wonder whether those that are too pure are destined for fleeting lives, like cats that are beautiful and white as snow, or birds with gossamer feathers.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, Dead-End Memories: Stories

“As long as I’m busy working on a project, I can keep my impulse control issues in check. I just can’t let my brain go idle, that’s when the demons take hold, the demons that tempt me, et cetera.”
― Anna Dorn, Perfume & Pain

“Like Seita and Setsuko, like Chihiro - like Sophie Hatter who disappears from her dreary life into a world of talking fireballs and melting wizards - the myth of grief is not just a case of falling down the rabbit hole to escape reality. It's about what happens to us on the descent, what happened once we're down there, and in which ways we are profoundly changed forever once we re-emerge - if, that is, we're lucky enough to do so. It is a different kind of myth: one which doesn't so much offer up the answers as it does provide a way to find them for ourselves. It is a maze - a labyrinth - in which we are sent to become lost before the possibility of escape is even contemplated. It is not quick - it is not easy. There is no map, no key, no legend, and no scale. There is only the maze itself and the quiet echoes of the world above. A shelter until the moment it becomes a prison, grief is the myth we live by when living feels impossible.”
― Karl Thomas Smith