Roberta

“La città, quel tuo desiderio bruciante di libertà, che cosa ti ha dato? Rumore e furore, che non significa nulla. Potrai anche credere che sono un vecchio pazzo fuori di cervello, ma da che io e tua madre abbiamo scelto questa vita, non abbiamo mai avuto rimpianti. Mi guadagno quello che mangio, tutto quello che ho ce l'ho indosso, non mi va di odiare nessuno, non invidio nessuno per la sua felicità".”
― Eleanor Brown

“Fa' ogni giorno una cosa che ti spaventa" disse mamma. "Eleanor Roosevelt”
― Eleanor Brown, The Weird Sisters

“-You've got a . . . Lot of books, he said at last.
-it's a sickness.
-Are you . . . Seeing anyone for it?
-I'm afraid it's untreatable.
-is this the . . . Dewey decimal system?
-No. But it's based on similar principles. Those are the British novelists. The French are in the kitchen. Homer, Virgil, and the other epics are by the tub.
-I take it the . . . Transcendental its do better in the sunlight.
-Exactly.
-Do they need much water?
-Not as much as you think. But lots of pruning.
He pointed the volume toward a pile of books under my bed.
-And the . . . Mushrooms?
-The Russians.
-Ah.
-Who's winning?
-Not me.”
― Amor Towles, Rules of Civility

“Even a trashy movie can make you cry. There were deep emotional reactions that ducked the censure of the higher reasoning processes and forced us to enact, however vestigially, our roles - me, the indignant secret lover revealed; Clarissa the woman cruelly betrayed.”
― Ian McEwan, Enduring Love