The Book of Form and Emptiness

by Ruth Ozeki

Think of us as a mycelium, a vast, subconscious fungal mat beneath a forest floor, and each book a fruiting body. Like mushrooms, we are a collectivity.

He knew that red and green were called complementary colors, which meant that they were opposites, but this made no sense because the word complement meant things that fit together, which was the opposite of opposite.

she felt the prickle of despair seeping in.

and then she had given Annabelle a lecture about caring for the caregiver. She talked about airplanes and oxygen masks, about self-care and support networks, about stress and burnout and learning to ask for help. Annabelle listened and tried to pay attention. She could tell Dr. Melanie was trying to be kind, but coming from her mouth, kind sounded an awful lot like condescending.

Why was it that women could never work hard enough to quiet their nagging fear that they were not enough?

We are ze stories we tell ourselves, Benny-boy. We meck ourselves up. We meck each other up, too.”