Aqsa

“I broke open, broke apart, and let all the rage and pain and bitterness go. It was too hard to hold on to, and I couldn’t do it any more. I thought I was holding on to my old life, but there wasn’t anything left of it. Only ugly residue, and that, I finally realized, wasn’t worth holding on to.”
― Emma Scott, Endless Possibility

“Something was going to unravel and I felt like I was the person who was holding the loose string, about to pull and watch it all fall apart.”
― Jessica Anya Blau, Mary Jane

“I felt him looking at me, admiring his work. He had not carved me like this, but he was imagining doing it. A beautiful statue, named The Supplicant.”
― Madeline Miller, Galatea

“After, in the torchlight, he wondered at the marks on me, the red around my neck, and the purple on my arms and chest where he had gripped me. He rubbed at them, as though they were stains, not bruises. “The color is perfect,” he said, “look.” And he held up the mirror so I could see. “You make the rarest canvas, love.”
― Madeline Miller, Galatea