The Book Maven

“It is not difficult to stand above the conventions when we leave no hostages among them; men can always be more unconventional than women, and a bachelor of independent means need encounter no difficulties at all.”
― E.M. Forster, Howards End

“You are a single woman; you intend to remain one. You’ve acquired enough sexual experience to feel you belong to your times. You do not have children; you never intended to. Sustained romantic intensities have not been for you. Your explanation (not an untrue one,though not quite sufficient) is that you have let yourself be shaped by so many conventions, expectations, and requirements (institution’s, people’s), by so much dread of disapproval, that the discipline of solitude—severe solitude—has been required to give you the sense of an independent selfhood. The intensities of friendship suit you better. Friendship’s choreography is for multiple partners: for varied groups and surprisingly sustained duets.”
― Margo Jefferson, Negroland

“I am stronger than I am broken.”
― Roxane Gay, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

“And it’s a shame that the measure is what is not so bad [in relationships and partners] instead of what is thriving and good […] I have had good relationships, but it’s hard to trust that because what I consider good doesn’t always feel very good at all.”
― Roxane Gay, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body