Shannon Jackson

“In our twenties, when there is still so much time ahead of us, time that seems ample for a hundred indecisions, for a hundred visions and revisions—we draw a card, and we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first card and keep the second. And before we know it, the deck has been played out and the decisions we have just made will shape our lives for decades to come.”
― Amor Towles, Rules of Civility

“-You've got a . . . Lot of books, he said at last.
-it's a sickness.
-Are you . . . Seeing anyone for it?
-I'm afraid it's untreatable.
-is this the . . . Dewey decimal system?
-No. But it's based on similar principles. Those are the British novelists. The French are in the kitchen. Homer, Virgil, and the other epics are by the tub.
-I take it the . . . Transcendental its do better in the sunlight.
-Exactly.
-Do they need much water?
-Not as much as you think. But lots of pruning.
He pointed the volume toward a pile of books under my bed.
-And the . . . Mushrooms?
-The Russians.
-Ah.
-Who's winning?
-Not me.”
― Amor Towles, Rules of Civility