Anne Secher

“Who are you?”
A long, slow silence, and then the voice laughed. Konstantin wasn’t sure he heard it; he might only have seen it, in the quiver of the shadows on the wall.
“The bringer of storms,” murmured the voice with a certain satisfaction. “For once you so summoned me. But long ago men called me the Bear—Medved.”
“You are a devil!” whispered Konstantin, clenching his hands. All the shadows laughed. “As you like. But what difference is there between me and the one you call God? I too revel in deeds done in my name. I can give you glory, if you will do my bidding.”
― Katherine Arden

“You know," he mutters, "I have never really understood why my sister chose you, above all others. 'What do you want to go marrying him for?' I said to her. 'What use is he?' Bartholomew takes his crook and places it squarely between his feet. "You know what she said to me?"
The husband, standing straight as a reed now, arms folded, lips pressed together, shakes his head. "What did she say?"
"That you had more hidden away inside you than anyone else she'd ever met.”
― Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet

“Trying to keep up appearances over the many years had become so exhausting that I often retreated to the safe place I had created in my mind.”
― Jude Morrow, Why Does Daddy Always Look So Sad?: A Memoir

“Why does it always happen that just when I begin to feel life simply couldn't get any better, fate drops a disaster into my path to prove me right?”
― Dianne Freeman, A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Murder