Some People Underestimate How Erotic It Is To Be Understood.

“Some people underestimate how erotic it is to be understood.”

—

Mary Rakow

(via purplebuddhaquotes)

The Goldfinch (2019)

My two moods are pretentious literature professor and illiterate bastard and there is no in-between.

“I wanted to scream out his name even though no one would hear me, but I didn’t have a scream left in me. I had nothing left, except those words. I remembered the words from the visions. I remembered every one of them. Blood of my heart. Life of my life. Body of my body. Soul of my soul.”

— Lena Duchannes, Beautiful Creatures

Razors pain you, rivers are damp. Acid stains you, drugs cause cramps. Guns aren’t lawful, nooses give. Gas smells awful, you might as well live.

“Well—I have to say I personally have never drawn such a sharp line between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ as you. For me: that line is often false. The two are never disconnected. One can’t exist without the other. As long as I am acting out of love, I feel I am doing best I know how. But you—wrapped up in judgment, always regretting the past, cursing yourself, blaming yourself, asking ‘what if,’ ‘what if.’ ‘Life is cruel.’ ‘I wish I had died instead of.’ Well—think about this. What if all your actions and choices, good or bad, make no difference to God? What if the pattern is pre-set? No no—hang on—this is a question worth struggling with. What if our badness and mistakes are the very thing that set our fate and bring us round to good? What if, for some of us, we can’t get there any other way?”

— Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch