Grace

“we were all essentially nothing, just series of sensations and desires, none of it lasting.”
― Jessica Au, Cold Enough for Snow

“I said that I too sometimes did not understand what I saw in galleries, or read in books. Though I understood the pressure of feeling like you had to have a view or opinion, especially one that you could articulate clearly, which usually only came with a certain education. This, I said, allowed you to speak of history and context, and was in many ways like a foreign language. For a long time, I had believed in this language, and I had done my best to become fluent in it. But I said that sometimes, increasingly often in fact, I was beginning to feel like this kind of response too was false, a performance, and not the one I had been looking for. Sometimes, I looked at a painting, and felt completely nothing. Or if I had a feeling, it was only intuitive, a reaction, nothing that could be expressed in words. It was all right, I said, to simply say if that was so. The main thing was to be open, to listen, to know when and when not to speak.”
― Jessica Au, Cold Enough for Snow

“You said, Beauty is only that which is intense, has a vibrant energy.
You said, This thing we call life mustn't ever become something endured.”
― Han Kang, Greek Lessons

“I had the vague thought I had been taught somehow that the best thing was still to be desired, even if you did not desire, even if you did not much like the person who desired you. Where I had learned this, I did not yet know.”
― Jessica Au, Cold Enough for Snow