Lesley Handel

“If James didn’t sit down within five seconds of being told, the consequence shifted to two minutes. If the behaviorist had to physically bring him to the time out spot, the consequences shifted to five minutes. If James wouldn’t sit quietly on his own and needed to be held, the behaviorist held him firmly and silently until James had stopped struggling and was quiet and then he required James to sit quietly for five minutes while he held him loosely and five minutes quietly on his own.”
― Joe Newman, Raising Lions: The Art of Compassionate Discipline

“Reluctantly, painfully, he detaches his tattered mind from the hard hook-pins of word and meter. He rolls away from his madness and strokes the purring, winding cat.”
― Siobhan Carroll, For He Can Creep

“I speak into the silence. I toss the stone of my story into a vast crevice; measure the emptiness by its small sound.”
― Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House

“You take the first step, and to save yourself from the consequences, you take the next one. In times like ours, there are only two directions: up or plummet.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Testaments