Virginia Woolf, From A Letter To Lytton Strachey (September 1925)

Jeanette Winterson, from The PowerBook

Sorry to break it to you but you literally have to face your fears and slaughter them. Otherwise you will live a small life that you do not want. You literally have to view your biggest fears and attack them head on. You have to fall into the abyss to find your way out. The easy path does not exist. There is no get out of jail free card. You have to allow yourself to die a spiritual death over and over again in order to reinvent yourself into the person you are actually supposed to be. And you have to be painfully honest with yourself and the people around you. It’s horrible but it’s truly the only way.

— Carol Rifka Brunt in Tell The Wolves I'm Home

anyway, don't be a stranger

p.s. i still wait for you

Kurt Vonnegut, from Mother Night; "Chapter Six Hundred & Fourty Three,"

it always came down to this, since the very beginning of time but if we keep wanting it, we're told it's pathetic, by the time we act tough, it might be gone. fools.

E.E. Cummings, Complete Poems, 1904-1962

Jenny Hval, from Girls Against God

Angela Carter, from The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories; "The Courtship of Mr Lyon,"

Its so offensive to see other live the life you've prayed for. That feeling is so raw, like I see that there might be some god up there and he definitely has some favorites.