All This Twisted Glory (This Woven Kingdom, #3)

by Tahereh Mafi

salt flat.

Only the privileged few could afford to run away, to lock their doors and close their eyes to ugliness. The rest lived in homes without doors to lock, looked through eyes without lids to shut. They confronted the dark even as their hearts trembled, as their souls shook—for even strangled by fear, there was no choice but to endure.

limpid eyes, but the delicate arches of her brows,

“You must not resist life when it becomes inconvenient to live. You cannot outrun fear. You should not ignore pain. You will not outlive death.”

“Master yourself so that you will never be mastered. Know yourself so that you might live with conviction. Live with conviction so that your steps never falter.” He paused. “The mastery of self means never fearing the consequences of doing what is right.”

“Here, even in the midst of your discomfort, there existed elements of relief, if only you had bothered to search.”

He was electric with impatience, with anxiety. Sometimes it felt as if he’d swallowed the sun, as if he was struggling to contain a fire that would kill him before it ever went out.