“Talent must be a fanatical mistress. She's beautiful; when you're with her, people watch you, they notice. But she bangs on your door at odd hours, and she disappears for long stretches, and she has no patience for the rest of your existence; your wife, your children, your friends. She is the most thrilling evening of your week, but some day she will leave you for good. One night, after she's been gone for years, you will see her on the arm of a younger man, and she will pretend not to recognize you.”
― City of Thieves
― City of Thieves
“And what's strange, what would be marvelous, is not that God should really exist; the marvel is that such an idea, the idea of the necessity of God, could enter the head of such a savage, vicious beast as man.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
― The Brothers Karamazov
“And the sun and the moon sometimes argue over who will tuck me in at night. If you think I am having more fun than anyone on this planet, you are absolutely correct.”
―
―
“The world stands on absurdities, and without them perhaps nothing at all would happen.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
― The Brothers Karamazov
“I punish myself for my whole life, my whole life I punish.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
― The Brothers Karamazov
Joan’s 2025 Year in Books
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