Zainab Alkurmanji

“Adam Carlsen. Destroyer of research careers, Olive had once overheard her
adviser say.”
― Ali Hazelwood, The Love Hypothesis

“They take root in us as we grow, settling deep into our souls. The good
words plant well. They flourish and find homes in our hearts. They build trunks
around our spines, steadying us when we’re feeling most flimsy; planting our
feet firmly when we’re feeling most unsure. But the bad words grow poorly. Our
trunks infest and spoil until we are hollow and housing the interests of others and
not our own. We are forced to eat the fruit those words have borne, held hostage
by the branches growing arms around our necks, suffocating us to death, one
word at a time”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Always to live among words, whether one wants to or not,
always to be alive, full of words about life,
as if words were alive, as if life meant words.

But it’s otherwise, believe me.
Between a word and a thing
you only encounter yourself,
lying between each as if next to someone ill,
never able to get to either,
tasting a sound and a body,
and relishing both.

It tastes of death.

—Ingeborg Bachmann, from “Always to live among words,” Darkness Spoken: The Collected Poems . Translated by Peter Filkins. Forward by Charles Simic. (Zephyr Press; Bilingual edition October 1, 2005)”
― Ingeborg Bachmann, Darkness Spoken: The Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann

“If there is one thing men hate more than a smart woman, it’s a smart woman who makes her own choices when it comes to her own sex life.”
― Ali Hazelwood, Love on the Brain