Julia

“A great sorrow, and one that I am only beginning to understand: we don’t get to choose our own hearts. We can’t make ourselves want what’s good for us or what’s good for other people. We don’t get to choose the people we are.”
― Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

“It was at once a miracle and the most natural thing in the world.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, Kitchen

“She said her life was completed,” Trina said. “That’s something that none of us will ever experience. Even if we’re gleaned someday, it won’t be the same, because we weren’t born mortal. From this moment on, no one will ever know what it feels like to be complete.”
― Neal Shusterman, Gleanings

“Sometimes I think it's better to suffer bitter unhappiness and to fight and to scream out, and even to suffer that terrible pain, than to just be... safe. At least she knows she's living.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn