Emily

“This fear [of commitment] is founded on a lucid and even wise apprehension of reality: the knowledge of the transience of things and feelings, of our inability to master them, of the risk that we may no longer be tomorrow who we are today, which also goes for the other person. But such lucidity and wisdom are paralyzing: if you listened to them, you wouldn’t say yes to anything… “Nine Columns for an Italian Magazine”
― Emmanuel Carrère, 97,196 Words: Essays

“Of course I was being sincere, but you can be sincere and be wrong, or in any case you can persuade yourself that you’re wrong as sincerely as you persuaded yourself to the contrary. “Nine Columns for an Italian Magazine”
― Emmanuel Carrère, 97,196 Words: Essays

“Over time, we all become committed to a version of the story of our lives. Simplification and repetition solidify the account, and we tend to stick with that identity. But that is old news.”
― Bob Woodward, The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat

“And I cried about all the things people can not understand when other people say them. I cried over the miracle that they could understand anything at all. I cried for all the things I had said to other people that had been misunderstood because I, not knowing, had said them wrong. I cried with joy about those times when someone and I had nodded together, grinning over an understanding, real or wished for.”
― Samuel R. Delany, Dhalgren