Help In Time (Charles Verlat, 1872)

Isabel Allende, The House of the Spirits

Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score

“Too often, the only escape is sleep.”

— Charles Bukowski

Wait for someone who bumps mouths clumsily with yours cos they’re too busy smiling to kiss you properly. Yeah. Wait for that.

Azra Tabassum

One thing I’ve learned about writing is ”give everything a face”. It’s no good to write passively that the nobility fled the city or that the toxic marshes were poisoning the animals beyond any ability to function. Make a protagonist see how a desperate woman in torn silks climbs onto a carriage and speeds off, or a two-headed deer wanders right into the camp and into the fire. Don’t just have an ambiguous flock of all-controlling oligarchy, name one or two representatives of it, and illustrate just how vile and greedy they are as people.

it’s bad to have characters who serve no purpose in the story, but giving something a face is a perfectly valid purpose.

““If you miss them, that means you’re lucky. It means you had someone special in your life, someone worth missing.” - Nathan Scott”

—

"Only know you've been high when you're feeling low / Only hate the road when you're missing home"

-Passenger, Let Her Go

“She was the kind of person who took care of things by herself. She’d never ask anybody for advice or help. It wasn’t a matter of pride, I think. She just did what seemed natural to her.”

— Haruki Murakami

Boy did I need this reminder

“Just for the record darling, not all positive change feels positive in the beginning.”

— S.C. Lourie