A Little Life

by Hanya Yanagihara

When did pursuing your ambitions cross the line from brave into foolhardy? How did you know when to stop?

There were times when the pressure to achieve happiness felt almost oppressive, as if happiness were something that everyone should and could attain, and that any sort of compromise in its pursuit was somehow your fault.

But how was one to be an adult? Was couplehood truly the only appropriate option? (But then, a sole option was no option at all.)

he was old enough now to know that within every relationship was something unfulfilled and disappointing, something that had to be sought elsewhere.

What he knew, he knew from books, and books lied, they made things prettier.