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Quote by Elena Ferrante

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My Brilliant Friend

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Elena Ferrante
Elena Ferrante

Elena Ferrante is a renowned contemporary Italian novelist, known for her unique narrative style and profound character portrayals. Her works cover a wide range of themes, including family, love, power, and social class. Ferrante's novels have received widespread acclaim both in Italy and around the world, despite the mystery surrounding her true identity. more

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“Nico,” I said at last, “shouldn’t you be sitting at the Hades table?” He shrugged. “Technically, yes. But if I sit alone at my table, strange things happen. Cracks open in the floor. Zombies crawl out and start roaming around. It’s a mood disorder. I can’t control it. That’s what I told Chiron.” “And is it true?” I asked. Nico smiled thinly. “I have a note from my doctor.” Will raised his hand. “I’m his doctor.” “Chiron decided it wasn’t worth arguing about,” Nico said. “As long as I sit at a table with other people, like…oh, these guys for instance…the zombies stay away. Everybody’s happier.” Will nodded serenely. “It’s the strangest thing. Not that Nico would ever misuse his powers to get what he wants.” “Of course not,” Nico agreed.”

“At times he missed being part of the pictures himself, here was a whole narrative of his friends' lives, his absence an enormous missing part, but he also enjoyed the godlike role he played. He got to see his friends differently, not as just appendages to his life but as distinct characters inhaling their own stories; he felt sometimes that he was seeing them for the first time, even after so many years of knowing them.”

“Dashing through the snow, with a one track mind you slay! None can blind your goal, or force you go astray! Stronger than the sleet, bolder than the hail, on you ride the waves, daring through dismay! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way – all is sweet around you dear, your absence makes it lay. O, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle rings joy true. Earth has plenty ancient art, but the bravest art is you.”

“...it’s always the friends in the end, isn’t it, who remain to pick up the pieces when the men have gone, leaving destruction in their wake? Still, only the romantic partner is taken seriously. Friends and family will not gather, ever, to celebrate my partnership with Naima—there will be no anniversaries or acknowledgments, no congratulatory cards, no celebratory ceremonies. And yet, it is this slow burning love of female friendship that actually keeps the world turning.”