Ruby

“Some memories remain close; you can shut your eyes and find yourself back in them. But there are second-person memories, too, distant you memories, and these are trickier: you watch yourself in disbelief.”
― Jess Walter, Beautiful Ruins

“A writer needs four things to achieve greatness, Pasquale: desire, disappointment, and the sea.”
“That’s only three.”
Alvis finished his wine. “You have to do disappointment twice.”
― Jess Walter, Beautiful Ruins

“This is what happens when you live in dreams, he thought: you dream this and you dream that and you sleep right through your life.”
― Jess Walter, Beautiful Ruins

“But I think some people wait forever, and only at the end of their lives do they realize that their life has happened while they were waiting for it to start.”
― Jess Walter, Beautiful Ruins