#co

To read fiction means to play a game by which we give sense to the immensity of things that happened, are happening, or will happen in the actual world. By reading narrative, we escape the anxiety that attacks us when we try to say something true about the world. This is the consoling function of narrative — the reason people tell stories, and have told stories from the beginning of time. ↗

— Umberto Eco

#escape #escapism #fiction #interpretation #narrative

Well, it doesn't sound particularly noble and knightly to say you've rescued the Chief Cook and Librarian, does it? And it has cut down on the number of interruptions. I used to get two or three knights a day, and now there's only about one a week. And the ones who do come are at least smart enough to figure out that I'm still a princess even if the dragons call me Chief Cook ↗

— Patricia C. Wrede

#cook #dragons #noble

It was one of those days when I was thinking too much, too fast. Only it was more like the thoughts had a mind of their own and going all by themselves at a hundred miles a second, and I was just sitting back, feeling the growing paranoia inside of me. ↗

— Sasha Mizaree

#contemplation #control-issues #paranoia #thoughts #anxiety

Why am I surrounded by sluts and morons? ↗

— Abria Mattina

#new-adult #contemporary

There are politics in sexual relationships because they occur in the context of a society that assigns power based on gender and other systems of inequality and privilege. ↗

— Susan Shaw

#sexuality #contemporary

There's something about a cowboy... ↗

— Kathleen Ball

#new-release #western-romance #contemporary

I know you don’t like to believe you ever need to be taken care of, but I can’t stand the idea of you being sick and alone. I need to be here for you, babe. ↗

— Toni Blake

#romance #contemporary

I love you. I love you. I love you. Always have, probably always will. Happy?” she said. He stopped when he was standing mere inches away. Reaching out, he captured her face in his hands and smoothed his thumbs across her cheekbones to clear her tears. “You have no idea how relieved I am to hear you say that,” he said. ↗

— Sarah Mayberry

#romance #love

You can be Han Solo," he said, kissing her throat. "And I'll be Boba Fett. I'll cross the sky for you. ↗

— Rainbow Rowell

#eleanor-park #park #rainbow-rowell #swoon #young-adult-contemporary-romance

Whew,” he said. “You clean up good. You don’t look like the same girl.” She frowned right before she laughed. “Do women usually thank you for saying things like that? ↗

— Robyn Carr

#funny #humour #romance #contemporary