مىّ

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
― Jorge Luis Borges

“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”
― Franz Kafka

“كتبت إليكِ كثيراً ، فلم تكتبي إليّ كثيراً ولا قليلاًَ ؛ لأنكِ تعتقدين ما يعتقده كثيرٌ من النساء من أن المرأة التي تكتب إلى حبيبها كتاب حب : آثمة أو غير شريفة ؛ أما انا فأعتقد أنها إن لم تفعل فهي مرائية مصانعة ، لأن المرأة التي وهبت قلبها هبة خالصة لا يخالطها شك وريبة ، لا ترى مانعاً يمنعها من أن تكتب لحبيبها في غيبته بمثل ما تحدثه به في حضرته .”
― مصطفى لطفي المنفلوطي, ماجدولين

“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.”
― Franz Kafka