Chris

“Not all stories are gossip, but the best ones feel like they could be. They invite a kind of collusion between the teller and the hearer, a secret shared that binds them together.”
― Kelsey McKinney, You Didn't Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip

“Cynical stories can become self-fulfilling, but hopeful ones can, too. By feeling--and wielding--the power of trust instead, we can transform cynicism's vicious cycle into a more virtuous one.”
― Jamil Zaki, Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness

“Not all little girls are born murderers, but every woman becomes one. Most simply destroy pieces of themselves - their dreams, their desires, their right to speak to whom and what they please. I kill men instead.”
― Heather M. Herrman, Lady or the Tiger

“Splitting his gaze between the starlight and the firelight, the only conclusion he could muster was that everything in nature, which meant everything everywhere, was more intricate and indecipherable than an outcast man on an obscure island could possibly fathom. The thought was a surrender yet in its wake trailed a peculiar solace, a sudden disburdening: if the questions couldn't be answered then the strain of asking them must be futile. After a while he laid himself down in a soft hollow of sand, still listening to her sing as his eyelids slipped closed.”
― Jonathan Miles, Eradication: A Fable