W.B. Dallas

“A man is born gentle and weak; at his death he is hard and stiff. All things, including the grass and trees, are soft and pliable in life; dry and brittle in death. Stiffness is thus a companion of death; flexibility a companion of life. An army that cannot yield will be defeated. A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind. The hard and stiff will be broken; the soft and supple will prevail.”
― Lao-Tzu

“We who burrow in filth every day may be forgiven perhaps the one sin that ends all sins.”
― Vladimir Nabokov

“Reading at meals is considered rude in polite society, but if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“You have killed him and taken your vengeance. It is enough.”
“It will never be enough,” he says.
FOR THE FIRST TIME since my death, he falls into a fitful, trembling sleep.
Achilles. I cannot bear to see you grieving.
His limbs twitch and shudder.
Give us both peace. Burn me and bury me. I will wait for you among the shades.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles