Kate

“Speaking Mandarin with a Russian accent is extremely difficult. Of all the languages I have learned, Mandarin took me the longest, and having to replicate the suitable tones while simultaneously presenting myself as a rather bumbling Soviet scholar was an exercise that caused me considerable distress. In”
― Claire North, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

“A man three parts moustache to one part facial features responded to “Darling!” with the dutiful twitch of one who has chosen not to fight the inevitable. “Mr August is British, would you ever have guessed?”
― Claire North, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

“It was characteristic of this lady (as of some other people before her time and since) that whenever her original proposition was questioned, she exaggerated it.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

“It looked like girls were controlled by their feelings but the opposite was true. Girls had excellent control of their feelings. They spun them around like batons: Now I’m crying! Now I’m laughing! Who knows what I’ll do next! Not you! A boy’s emotions were like baseball bats that blindsided him.”
― Liane Moriarty, Nine Perfect Strangers