“i am the pebble in your italian loafers (also the reason you can own them). i am the shadow that curves over the swollen cracked plaster in barry's ceiling, waking him in fear when the moon is bright. i am the acrid taste that flows from the kitchen taps after heavy rains. i am after you, i am part of you, i am everywhere, i love you.” LoveLongPainDeathHeartbreak Book:Shirley Source: Shirley
“we were students; you read my story in the threshold. you said to your roommate, 'this woman has something. i'm going to meet her.' you told him. 'and if she's anything like her writing, i'm going to marry her.' wasn't i? wasn't i?” LongPainHeartbreak Book:Shirley Source: Shirley
“dead, i have one thing that you do not. i never age. i curse you to wrinkles and strands of grey hair swept across the dome of your balding head. i curse you and i hate you and i will not leave you. because i love you.” LongPainDeathHeartbreak Book:Shirley Source: Shirley
“I did not cry [...] I did not think. I simply sat, and watched and waited. One road had closed, one path to resolution. I would never make it up with her, never get to apologize or tell her what she'd meant to me. I would not be her friend again. I had not conceived this possibility. Forgiveness. I hoped she had forgiven me.” LongPainDeathHeartbreakNostalgia Book:Shirley Source: Shirley