"He would not know now, and would not know for decades, that this was all that mattered. These hours. The hours of creation and the hours of warming next to the hearth of this creation. It did not matter at all if it was deemed by him, or anyone, of any value. What mattered was that he could create a rapture, by himself, from nothing."

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Contrapposto by Dave Eggers

 

"It did not even surprise her to see him actually standing at the bar, but what did surprise her was the wave of exultation that the unexpected sight of him brought. Imagine feeling this way about anyone!"

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A Time to Be Born by Dawn Powell

 

"For nine years Lowell had nourished the pleasant delusion that his job was only temporary, a kind of stopping-off place where he was getting his breath and taking his bearings after the grim and disorganizing experience of his novel."

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A Meaningful Life by L.J. Davis

 

"It therefore happens that we spend a fair amount of time on a given comma's desirability or lack thereof...Despite the weighty and veritable stakes, I wish to be clear that, on those days, we have a blast."

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Jérôme Lindon by Jean Echenoz

 

"The difference is that the desires, while private, have consequences which are public."

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Life of M by Rachel Cusk



"It's always the same story, isn't it: he accepts these offers without thinking about them and at the last moment they drive him to despair."
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Ravel by Jean Echenoz

 

"Not only did he need to prove to Vanessa that he had been worth sticking with, but he needed to address the panic that this would, unless he put a stop to it, keep happening. He would keep falling in love with women. He would love one woman for a few years like he had Vanessa till things got a little regular, then another woman like Kay would appear and he'd fall in love with her, and even if he never actually fell in love with any woman ever again, he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to say no to the occasional temptation. He didn't see how he'd be able to help himself. He figured he'd better stop it now and try to stick with one woman."

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Rapture by Susan Minot

 

"And of us both they will say: Why all that conflict and struggle, why did they fight instead of just looking and staying still, why were they unable to meet or to go on seeing each other, and why so much sleep, so many dreams, and why that scratch, my pain, my word, your fever, that dance, and all those doubts, all that torment?"

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Your Face Tomorrow Volume 2: Dance and Dream by Javier Marías

 

"What she had cared for was his commitment to their shared narrative, the endless interpretive games that had made up their life together." 

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The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams

 

"...why is it, I think, while getting stoned out of my mind on Poppy's shitty vape pen, that in this life, in our simulation, in whatever terrifying meaningless thing it is we're all doing every day, we can only create infinite and infinitely worse versions of things we already have instead of good new things we need?"

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Worry by Alexandra Tanner

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