Gemma

“And where were you?’ he asks. ‘While you were gone?’ ‘I was in a house with many rooms. The sea sweeps through the house. Sometimes it swept over me, but always I was saved.”
― Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

“They do not care if you are good. They barely care if you are wicked. The only thing that makes them listen is power.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“I felt the currents move. The grains of sand whispered against each other. His wings were lifting. The darkness around us shimmered with clouds of his gilded blood. Beneath my feet were the bones of a thousand years. I thought: I cannot bear this world a moment longer.

Then, child, make another.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“You cannot control others if you cannot control yourself. Those who most understand their own limitations have the fewest.”
― Stephen Fry, Heroes: Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures