Jules

“HE: History has no smell.
ME: Is that why we are nostalgic for it?
HE: Breathe in, breathe out. The past doesn’t stink like the present.”
― Jeanette Winterson, Gut Symmetries

“I feel myself retreating to someplace deep inside. It is a pitiful kind of childhood, to know that no one loves you or is taking care of you, to always be on the outside looking in. I feel a decade older than my years. I know too much; I have seen people at their worst, at their most desperate and selfish, and this knowledge makes me wary. So I am learning to pretend, to smile and nod, to display empathy I do not feel. I am learning to pass, to look like everyone else, even though I feel broken inside.”
― Christina Baker Kline, Orphan Train

“Does the Japanese race, wonders Jacob, derive gratification from self-inflicted misery?”
― David Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

“Leave old pains alone. When they cease coming to call, do not invite them back.”
― Robin Hobb, Fool's Errand