Bel

“Women matter. Women are half of us. When you raise every woman to believe that we are insignificant, that we are broken, that we are sick, that the only cure is starvation and restraint and smallness; when you pit women against one another, keep us shackled by shame and hunger, obsessing over our flaws rather than our power and potential; when you leverage all of that to sap our money and our time—that moves the rudder of the world. It steers humanity toward conservatism and walls and the narrow interests of men, and it keeps us adrift in waters where women’s safety and humanity are secondary to men’s pleasure and convenience.”
― Lindy West, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman

“Books are not about passing the time. They’re about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to pass, Sir Kevin, one just wishes one had more of it.”
― Alan Bennett, The Uncommon Reader

“Thus we inaugurate the best time in the little kingdom we have pitched up against the darkness.”
― Sebastian Barry, Days Without End

“Mme Danglars, who could still be described as beautiful despite her thirty-six years,”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo