#tempo

You know there’s this gaping space between us, and if I leaned forward I’d grab Dex’s shirt without ever touching him. You know there’s a three-inch-thick glass wall separating us. Now we know, too. ↗

— Rebecca Berto

#fiction #new-adult #romance #contemporary

After I left here on Saturday, I decided never to see you again.” He was sliding the frittata under the broiler, so she could only see his profile, but damn if he didn’t appear to be smirking. “I know that, darling. It wounds my pride you won’t go out with me, but I can console myself with the knowledge that when you do see me, you can’t keep your knickers on for ten minutes running.” She threw her cookie at him, feigning indignation. “You bastard! Are you calling me easy?” “I like you easy. Besides, you’re not to blame. Who’d want to wear wet knickers? ↗

— Ruthie Knox

#contemporary

It is this nothingness (in solitude) that I have to face in my solitude, a nothingness so dreadful that everything in me wants to run to my friends, my work, and my distractions so that I can forget my nothingness and make myself believe that I am worth something. The task is to persevere in my solitude, to stay in my cell until all my seductive visitors get tired of pounding on my door and leave me alone. The wisdom of the desert is that the confrontation with our own frightening nothingness forces us to surrender ourselves totally and unconditionally to the Lord Jesus Christ. ↗

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

#contemporary

Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others... ↗

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

#empathy #empathy-diversity #empathy-psychology #prejudice #racism

I can see the stars in your eyes from a mile away. They guide me to you just like the North Star.” Then he bent his head and kissed her – a long, sweet kiss under moonbeams that caressed them both lovingly. ↗

— Kelly Curry

#contemporary #love #romance-novels #romances #contemporary-romance

I need to make myself strong on the inside instead of what is on the outside. I know all of this, but why can’t I put any of it into action? I guess that’s why I am in this place. ↗

— Piper Caleb

#diary #eating-disorders #new-adult #psychology #new-adult

Everything is temporary. Everything is bound to end. ↗

— Keren Ann

#end #everything #temporary

Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his shoulders, that he is a literary aristocracy of one. ↗

— W. H. Auden

#aristocracy #contemporary #every #fallen #feels

But I also think that it does create a lot of revenue, but to me it's a temporary revenue stream because it's an industry that, if suddenly gambling started in Massachusetts, then a lot of our patrons who would gamble in New Hampshire if we had it, would disappear. ↗

— Craig Benson

#because #create #disappear #does #gamble

There is no magic. There is no secret. You need your sleep. A lot of our society tries to get by, but the truth is it is up to each individual to get their optimal sleep amount. If you get less than that you can get by temporarily, but it's only temporary. ↗

— Richard Berry

#each #get #individual #less #lot