Without warning I had a vision of Francis – twenty years later, fifty years, in a wheelchair. And of myself – older, too, sitting around with him in some smoky room, the two of us repeating this exchange for the thousandth time. At one time I had liked the idea, that the act, at least, had bound us together; we were not ordinary friends, but friends till-death-do-us-part. This thought had been my only comfort in the aftermath of Bunny’s death. Now it made me sick, knowing there was no way out. I was stuck with them, with all of them, for good. - The Secret History by Donna Tartt

“The heart is a law to itself; if you try to bind it, you lose it; give it its liberty, and you make it your own.”

“You will burn and you will burn out; you will be healed and come back again.”

“[…]smelling of crushed daisies and sweat.”

“My soul feels old, antiqued.”