chan > chan's Quotes

“And I am trying my best, too. Even if we don’t always know what that means or how it will play out. You can get caught up in something that’s beyond you, and never understand why.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, Acceptance

“You can’t choose blindness when it suits you. Not anymore.”
― Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom

“Mankind didn’t make messes; mankind was the mess.”
― Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom

“But a wealthy man’s reality is remade at will.”
― Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom

“The victims of Jack the Ripper were never 'just prostitutes'; they were daughters, wives, mothers, sisters, and lovers. They were women. They were human beings, and surely that in itself is enough.”
― Hallie Rubenhold, The Five: The Lives of Jack the Ripper's Women

“The courses their lives took mirrored that of so many other women of the Victorian age, and yet were so singular in the way they ended. It is for them that I write this book. I do so in the hope that we may now hear their stories clearly and give back to them that which was so brutally taken away with their lives: their dignity.”
― Hallie Rubenhold, The Five: The Lives of Jack the Ripper's Women

“My father liked to tell a story about a day when I got discouraged. From the warmth of the car, he had been watching me flounder — I imagine him smoking his pipe, wearing a big fluffy fisherman’s sweater. I came in, my feet and knees bleeding, stumbling across the rocks, dropping my board, humiliated and exhausted. He told me to go back out and catch three more waves. I refused. He insisted. I could ride them on my knees if necessary, he said. I was furious. But I went back out and caught the waves, and in his version of the story, that was when I became a surfer. If he hadn’t made me go back out that day, I would have quit. He was sure of that.”
― William Finnegan, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life

“I did not consider, even passingly, that I had a choice when it came to surfing. My enchantment would take me where it would.”
― William Finnegan, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life

“Surfers have a perfection fetish. The perfect wave, etcetera. There is no such thing. Waves are not stationary objects in nature like roses or diamonds. They’re quick, violent events at the end of a long chain of storm action and ocean reaction. Even the most symmetrical breaks have quirks and a totally specific, local character, changing with every shift in tide and wind and swell.”
― William Finnegan, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life

“Was 'surfing' even what I was doing? I chased waves instinctively, got appropriately stoked when it was good, got thoroughly immersed in working out the puzzle of a new spot. Still, peak moments were, by definition, few and far between. Most sessions were unremarkable. What was consistent was a certain serenity that followed a rigorous session. It was physical, this postsurf mood, but it had a distinct emotionality too. Sometimes it was mild elation. Often it was a pleasant melancholy. After particularly intense tubes or wipeouts, I felt a charged and wild inclination to weep, which could last for hours.”
― William Finnegan, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life

“And whatever you do, don’t close your eyes.'

'What happens if I close my eyes?'

'You miss the fun.”
― Jessica Townsend, Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow

“Death is boring. Life is much more fun. Things happen in life all the time. Unexpected things. Things you couldn’t possibly expect because they’re so very… unexpected.”
― Jessica Townsend, Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow

“Trauma can warp the brain.”
― T. Christian Miller, A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America

“People say, 'Why do you work sex crimes and kid crimes?' I don’t enjoy it. But someone’s got to do it. And someone’s got to do it well.”
― T. Christian Miller, A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America

“She knew that the universe of women who had been raped looked identical to the universe of women. They could be mothers, teens, sex workers. They could live in mansions or in flophouses. They could be homeless or suffer from schizophrenia. They could be black or white or Asian. They could be passed out drunk or completely sober. And they could react to the crime in all kinds of ways. They could be hysterical. Or withdrawn. They could tell a friend, or they could tell no one. They might call the cops right away, or they might wait a week, a month, even years.”
― T. Christian Miller, A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America

“No, Paige. I am trying to help you.”
“Go to hell.”
“I already exist on a level of hell.”
“Exist on one that isn't near mine.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Bone Season

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”
― Martha Wells, All Systems Red

“Second to the right, and straight on till morning.”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

“I am not going to sit around sweating my ass off just so men can feel more comfortable. It’s not my responsibility to not turn them on. It’s their responsibility to not be an asshole.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six

“I've seen a lot of marriages where everyone is faithful and no one is happy.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six

“Lying protects people sometimes.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six

“That was the beginning of a bad time. Where I was not myself. Actually, no. I don’t like putting it that way — you’re never not yourself. You’re always you. It’s just, sometimes, who you are… who you are is a shitty person.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six

“When you’re on the road, you don’t really have to deal with real life. It’s almost like hitting the pause button.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six

“They raise us to be soft as silk, distract us with luxury and wealth beyond measure, so we never rock the boat that carries us. They expect us to be so bored by our power that we let them do the ruling in our stead. Behind every throne is a masked servant who seeks only to make a puppet of the one who sits on it.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Priory of the Orange Tree

“Black doves and white crows flew to her, for she was mother to the outcasts.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Priory of the Orange Tree

“Let them come with their swords and their torches. Let them come.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Priory of the Orange Tree

“How could misfortune follow me so well, and why did I choose it every time?”
― Terese Marie Mailhot, Heart Berries

“There was still so much to tell you — things too ugly to know or say.”
― Terese Marie Mailhot, Heart Berries

“Observation is a skill. Observation isn’t easy, and the right eyes can make me feel like a deer, while the wrong ones make me feel like a monster.”
― Terese Marie Mailhot, Heart Berries: A Memoir

“Each child, woman, and man should know a limit of containment. Nobody should be asked to hold more.”
― Terese Marie Mailhot, Heart Berries