My New Belief Is That Love Should Make You Feel Both Held And Free

my new belief is that love should make you feel both held and free

“[…] and then such silence that it seemed some one was listening.”

— Katherine Mansfield, from ‘At the Bay’, first published in 1922.

Pride & Prejudice (2005) dir. Joe Wright

““It’s very quiet now,” she thought. She opened her eyes wide, and she heard the silence spinning its soft endless web.”

— Katherine Mansfield, from ‘Prelude’, first published in 1918.

“Hatred would have been easier. With hatred, I would have known what to do.”

— Margaret Atwood, from ‘Cat’s Eye’, first published in 1988.

“One day he said to me ̶ […] ̶ 'Why are you sad?’. ‘I’m not sad,’ I said, and began to cry. Sympathy from strangers can be ruinous.”

—

Margaret Atwood, from ‘The Blind Assassin’, first published in 2000.

“Sometimes being offered tenderness feels like the very proof that you’ve been ruined”

- Ocean Vuong, from ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’, first published in 2019.