“You had to invent something. It's not possible to leave it blank. The mind
won't let you.”
― Paul Auster, quote from The Music of Chance
“Once a man begins to recognize himself in another, he can no longer look on that person as a stranger.”
― Paul Auster, quote from The Music of Chance
“It's just another word for the same thing. You want to believe in some hidden purpose. You're trying to persuade yourself there's a reason for what happens in the world. I don't care what you call it--God or luck or harmony-- it all comes down to the same bullshit. It's a way of avoiding the facts, of refusing to look at how things really work.”
― Paul Auster, quote from The Music of Chance
“It was a dizzying prospect—to imagine all that freedom, to understand how little it mattered what choice he made.”
― Paul Auster, quote from The Music of Chance
“I know you don't love me but that doesn't mean I'm the wrong girl for you.”
― Paul Auster, quote from The Music of Chance
“Due artisti nella stessa casa potrebbero essere troppi. Qualcuno deve occuparsi dell’aspetto pratico delle cose, eh, Willie? Ci vuole gente di tutti i tipi per fare il mondo.”
― Paul Auster, quote from The Music of Chance
“کافیست زندگی دیگری برای خود تجسم کنید تا قلب تان هم چنان بتپد”
― Paul Auster, quote from The Music of Chance
“بعضی ها یکشنبه ها می رن کلیسا، اما برای ما پوکر جمعه شب ها مهم بود. نمی دونین اون وقتا چه قدر آخر هفته هامونو دوست داشتیم! بذارین بهتون بگم برای از بین بردن دغدغه های کار هیچ دوایی بهتر از یک دست قمار دوستانه نیس.”
― Paul Auster, quote from The Music of Chance
“We're a tragedy in the making. The game of tug-of-war we're playing will end up destroying us, because she doesn't have it in her to surrender, and I can't let go.”
― J.M. Darhower, quote from Torture to Her Soul
“Maybe the point of I love you is that it is a tether. A connection so you can find your way back to someone even when shit seems huge and unmanageable on your own. A promise to help just because you care about someone, a promise to help that doesn’t mean pulling away.”
― Roan Parrish, quote from In the Middle of Somewhere
“Guys hate anticipation. That’s why we all write about satisfaction. Why we never wrap presents. I notice you wrapped mine.”
“I thought it was because you’re all too cheap to buy wrapping paper. Or too clueless to find it in the store.”
“There’s that. But honestly, you go to the trouble of getting someone a present, something you think they’d like—why hide it and make them work for it? It’s coy.”
― Huntley Fitzpatrick, quote from The Boy Most Likely To
“what love looks like
what does love look like the therapist asks
one week after the breakup
and i’m not sure how to answer her question
except for the fact that i thought love
looked so much like you
that’s when it hit me
and i realized how naive i had been
to place an idea so beautiful on the image of a person
as if anybody on this entire earth
could encompass all love represented
as if this emotion seven billion people tremble for
would look like a five foot eleven
medium-sized brown-skinned guy
who likes eating frozen pizza for breakfast
what does love look like the therapist asks again
this time interrupting my thoughts midsentence
and at this point i’m about to get up
and walk right out the door
except i paid too much money for this hour
so instead i take a piercing look at her
the way you look at someone
when you’re about to hand it to them
lips pursed tightly preparing to launch into conversation
eyes digging deeply into theirs
searching for all the weak spots
they have hidden somewhere
hair being tucked behind the ears
as if you have to physically prepare for a conversation
on the philosophies or rather disappointments
of what love looks like
well i tell her
i don’t think love is him anymore
if love was him
he would be here wouldn’t he
if he was the one for me
wouldn’t he be the one sitting across from me
if love was him it would have been simple
i don’t think love is him anymore i repeat
i think love never was
i think i just wanted something
was ready to give myself to something
i believed was bigger than myself
and when i saw someone
who probably fit the part
i made it very much my intention
to make him my counterpart
and i lost myself to him
he took and he took
wrapped me in the word special
until i was so convinced he had eyes only to see me
hands only to feel me
a body only to be with me
oh how he emptied me
how does that make you feel
interrupts the therapist
well i said
it kind of makes me feel like shit
maybe we’re looking at it wrong
we think it’s something to search for out there
something meant to crash into us
on our way out of an elevator
or slip into our chair at a cafe somewhere
appear at the end of an aisle at the bookstore
looking the right amount of sexy and intellectual
but i think love starts here
everything else is just desire and projection
of all our wants needs and fantasies
but those externalities could never work out
if we didn’t turn inward and learn
how to love ourselves in order to love other people
love does not look like a person
love is our actions
love is giving all we can
even if it’s just the bigger slice of cake
love is understanding
we have the power to hurt one another
but we are going to do everything in our power
to make sure we don’t
love is figuring out all the kind sweetness we deserve
and when someone shows up
saying they will provide it as you do
but their actions seem to break you
rather than build you
love is knowing who to choose”
― Rupi Kaur, quote from The Sun and Her Flowers
“It is August.
My life is going to change. I feel it.”
― Raymond Carver, quote from Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
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