Serra

“Moreover, my policy at the time was that, when confronted by two courses of action, one should always choose the less conservative and more generous. I thought this was tantamount to a moral obligation for anyone who had any advantages at all, and especially for anyone who wanted to be a writer.”
― Elif Batuman, The Idiot

“If he hadn't lied to you, he would have been a different person than he is.' She is trying to get me to see that although I thought I loved this man very completely for exactly who he was, I was in fact blind to the man he actually was, or is.”
― Maggie Nelson, Bluets

“Sana kendimden bir şey getirmiştim.
Bir yerde oturuyorduk, konuşarak. Nasıl olduysa, garsonlar masayı toplarken, getirdiğimi de alıp kaldırmışlar. Çıktık. Bir araca tam bindik ki, senin aklına geldi - çantana bir baktın, ve hemen, "İniyoruz" dedin. İndik. Geri gidip bulup aldık sana getirdiğimi; araç sırasına geri döndük.
O, kesin, "İniyoruz" demen, belirleyiciydi - içime ışık dolmuştu, sen bunu söyleyince-
Her şeyi, apaçık, ortaya koyuyordu:-
Önem veriyordun - benim olan; benden sana gelen, önemliydi senin için- kararlıydın:-
En temelidir bu, ilişkinin: önem vermekte kararlı olmak.
Bunun önemi de, hiçbir öndüşünce taşımamasında : öyle, kendiliğinden, oluşuvermesinde; sanki, hiç düşünülmeden, hesaplanmadan, amaçlanmadan, yapılıvermesinde.
İlişkinin kendisi gibi...”
― Oruç Aruoba, ile

“It was hard to decide on a literature course. Everything the professors said seemed to be somehow beside the point. You wanted to know why Anna had to die, and instead they told you that 19th century Russian landowners felt conflicted about whether they were really a part of Europe. The implication was that it was somehow naive to want to talk about anything interesting, or to think that you would ever know anything important.”
― Elif Batuman, The Idiot