Ingrid

“In your twenties, separation can take an entire year, but if one of you lacks the courage, you can add two years more to the count. After forty, it takes at least ten years to separate. Ten years between the moment you realize it’s not working anymore and the moment you decide to leave.”
― Maud Ventura, My Husband

“I have always lived in the myth of New York more than in its reality.”
― Ling Ma, Severance

“The first place you live alone, away from your family, he said, is the first place you become a person, the first place you become yourself.”
― Ling Ma, Severance

“During this time, my husband continues to revel in his egotistical sleep. In this moment, I detest him. There is no other solution: I scream as though I’m having a nightmare. He wakes up with a jump. I stammer in a falsely sleepy voice that I’m sorry, just a bad dream, and turn back to my side of the bed. I hope my husband can’t fall back asleep and that his insomnia will leave him the time necessary to reflect on his betrayal. It’s important that he ask himself: How could he have reduced his own wife to the rank of a vulgar clementine? Why not a banana?”
― Maud Ventura, My Husband