HALF IN LIFE

“I am always half in life, half in a fantastical version of it in my head.” 
― Dolly Alderton, Everything I Know About Love

ONLY

“Most of us have only one story to tell. I don’t mean that only one thing happens to us in our lives: there are countless events, which we turn into countless stories. But there’s only one that matters, only one finally worth telling.” 
      ― Julian Barnes, The Only Story

THE SECRET STORY

“That's what art is, he said, the story of a life in all its particularity. It's the only thing that really is particular and personal. It's the expression and, at the same time, the fabric of the particular. And what do you mean by the fabric of the particular? I asked, supposing he would answer: Art. I was also thinking, indulgently, that we were pretty drunk already and that it was time to go home. But my friend said: What I mean is the secret story.... The secret story is the one we'll never know, although we're living it from day to day, thinking we're alive, thinking we've got it all under control and the stuff we overlook doesn't matter. But every damn thing matters! It's just that we don't realize. We tell ourselves that art runs on one track and life, our lives, on another, we don't even realize that's a lie.” 
― Roberto Bolaño, Last Evenings on Earth

TREASURE CHESTS

“I’ll give you treasure chests full of gold pieces, I know the value of spending time with you.” 
― Elena Ferrante, The Neapolitan Novels 

THIS IS THE DAY, THIS IS THE NIGHT.

“Children don’t know the meaning of yesterday, of the day before yesterday, or even of tomorrow, everything is this, now: the street is this, the doorway is this, the stairs are this, this is Mamma, this is Papa, this is the day, this the night.” 
― Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend

WINTER WEEKS

“You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life” 
― Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

MOTHER

“What do we want from our mothers when we are children? Complete submission. Oh, it's very nice and rational and respectable to say that a woman has every right to her life, to her ambitions, to her needs, and so on--it's what I've always demanded myself--but as a child, no, the truth is it's a war of attrition, rationality doesn't come into it, not one bit, all you want from your mother is that she once and for all admit that she is your mother and only your mother, and that her battle with the rest of life is over. She has to lay down arms and come to you.” 
― Zadie Smith, Swing Time