Janet Barclay

“I would rather suffer than experience nothing.”
― Sara Seager, The Smallest Lights In The Universe

“Life happens so fast. I woke up a young man, at lunch I was middle aged, and by dinner I could imagine my own death. I long ago finished my wine, ale, and hors d'oeuvres, the main course was mostly a grand feast. Coffee has been served, and I hope for one last, sweet taste of dessert.”
― Sally Cole-Misch

“Lincoln couldn't help wondering if what had happened at Rockers was best viewed as an isolated incident or as part of a long-established pattern, one that could be summed up as Teddy's life not, to borrow Coffin's term, working out. Even back at Minerva, Teddy had seemed resigned to the likelihood that it wouldn't. Which begged a question: Had Teddy meekly accepted what he saw as the invisible trajectory of his life, or had he courageously accepted what he couldn't possibly change?”
― Richard Russo, Chances Are...

“I start trembling at the very thought of the unplanned and unknown, but inevitable and unstoppable force with which parents leave traces in their children that, like traces of branding, can never be erased. The outlines of parental will and fear are written with a white-hot stylus in the souls of the children who are helpless and ignorant of what is happening to them. We need a whole life to find and decipher the branded text and we can never be sure we have understood it.”
― Pascal Mercier, Night Train to Lisbon