Ally

“You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else.”
― John Irving, The World According to Garp

“There is so a real poem," said Fatima, annoyed. "The real Conference of the Birds was written by someone, by a real person. He had certain intentions. I want to know what they are. He wrote the poem for a reason, and the reason matters."

"Does it?" Vikram stretched his toes, revealing a row of claws as black as obsidian. "Once a story leaves the hand of its author, it belongs to the reader. And the reader may see any number of things, conflicting things, contradictory things. The author goes silent. If what he intended matter so very much, there would be no need for inquisitions, schisms and wars. But he is silent, silent. The author of the poem is silent, the author of the world is silent. We are left with no intentions but our own.”
― G. Willow Wilson, The Bird King

“I never trust people with no appetite. It's like they're always holding something back on you.”
― Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

“No one who is young is ever going to be old.”
― John Steinbeck, East of Eden