“Touched the mirror
Broke the surface of the water
Saw my true self
All illusions shattered.”

Paper and Ink, Tracy Chapman

“Who took away the part so essential to the whole
Left you a hollow body
Skin and bone.”

Remember the Tinman, Tracy Chapman Recommended by Anne.

“A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.”

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [movie]

“The day before I had met the nuns of the Santa Maria Auxiliadora Convent on their Saturday coach outing to the penguin colony on Cabo Virgenes. A bus-load of virgins. Eleven thousand virgins. About a million penguins. Black and white. Black and white. Black and white.”

In Patagonia, Bruce Chatwin

“I can't think again. Not ever again. I don't know if you've ever felt like that. That you wanted to sleep for a thousand years. Or just not exist. Or just not be aware that you do exist. Or something like that.”

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

“I know that I brought this all on myself. I know that I deserve this. I'd do anything not to be this way. I'd do anything to make it up to everyone. And to not have to see a psychiatrist, who explains to me about being 'passive aggressive.' And to not have to take the medicine he gives me, which is too expensive for my dad. And to not have to talk about bad memories with him. Or be nostalgic over bad things. I wish that God or my parents or Sam or my sister or someone would just tell me what's wrong with me. Just tell me how to be different in a way that makes sense. To make this all go away. And disappear. I know that's wrong because it's my responsibility, and I know that things get worse before they get better because that's what my psychiatrist says, but this is a worse that feels too big.”

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

“I walked over to the hill where we used to go and sled. There were a lot of little kids there. I watched them flying. Doing jumps and having races. And I thought that all those little kids are going to grow up someday. And all of those little kids are going to do the things we do now. And they will all kiss someone someday. But for now, sledding is enough. I think it would be great if sledding were always enough, but it isn't.”

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

“It's like when you are excited about a girl and you see a couple holding hands, and you feel so happy for them. And other times you see the same couple, and they make you so mad. And all you want is to feel happy for them because you know that if you do, then it means that you're happy too.”

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

“Once on a yellow piece of paper with green lines he wrote a poem
and he called it 'Chops' because that was the name of his dog
and that's what it was all about
and his teacher gave him an 'a' and a gold star
and his mother hung it on the kitchen door and read it to all his aunts
that was the year Father Tracy took all the kids to the zoo
and he let them sing on the bus
and his little sister was born with tiny toenails and no hair
and his mother and father kissed alot
and the little girl around the corner sent him a valentine signed with a row of x's and he had to ask his father what the x's meant
and his father always tucked him in bed at night
and was always there to do it

Once on a piece of white paper with blue lines he wrote a poem
and he called it 'autumn' because that was the name of the season
and that's what it was all about
and his teacher gave him an 'a' and asked him to write more clearly
and his mother never hung it on the kitchen door because of the new paint
and the kids told him that Father Tracy smoked cigars
and left them in the pews
and sometimes they would burn holes
that was the year his sister got glasses with thick lenses and black frames
and the girl around the corner laughed when he asked her to go see Santa Claus
and the kids told him why his mother and father kissed alot
and his father never tucked him in bed at night
and his father got mad when he cried for him to do it

Once on a piece of paper torn from his notebook he wrote a poem
and he called it 'Innocence: a question' because that was the question about his girl
and that's what it was all about
and his professor gave him an 'a' and a strange steady look
and his mother never hung it on the kitchen door because he never showed it to her
that was the year Father Tracy died
and he forgot how the end of the Apostle's Creed went
and he caught his sister making out on the back porch
and his mother and father never kissed or even talked
and the girl around the corner wore too much makeup
that made him cough when he kissed her but he did anyway because that was the thing to do
and at 3am he tucked himself into bed - his father snoring loudly

that's why on the back of a brown paper bag he tried another poem
and he called it 'Absolutely Nothing'
because that's what it was all about
and he gave himself an 'a' and a slash on each damned wrist
and he hung it on the bathroom door because this time he didn't think he could reach the kitchen.”

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky Recommended by Hilary.

“Not once in his life had he danced, not once had he put his arm round an attractive young woman's waist. He would usually be absolutely delighted when, with everyone looking on, a man took a young girl he hadn't met before by the waist and offered his shoulders for her to rest her hands on, but he could never imagine himself in that situation. There had been times when he envied his fellow officers' daring and dashing ways and it made him very depressed. The realization that he was shy, round-shouldered, quite undistinguished, that he had a long waist, the lynx-like side whiskers, hurt him deeply. But over the years this realization had become something of a habit and as he watched his friends dance or talk out loud he no longer envied them but was filled with sadness.”

The Kiss, Anton Chekhov

“Anna Sergeyevna, too, came in. She sat down in the third row, and when Gurov looked at her his heart contracted, and he understood clearly that in the whole world there was no human being so near, so precious, and so important to him; she, this little, undistinguished woman, lost in a provincial crowd, with a vulgar lorgnette in her hand, filled his whole life now, was his sorrow and his joy, the only happiness that he now desired for himself, and to the sounds of the bad orchestra, of the miserable local violins, he thought how lovely she was. He thought and dreamed.”

The Lady with the Pet Dog, Anton Chekhov

“Gaining weight and pulling my head out of the toilet was the most political act I have ever committed.”

The Body Politic, Abra Fortune Chernik

“[He] was thinking how hard it would be to look in a mirror if the worst parts of your life showed all over your face.”

V for Victor, Mark Childress

“Too much awareness is a sickness; it keeps me awake all night.”

Yi Cho-nyon

“John Dewey scarcely exaggerated when he described politics as 'the shadow cast on society by big business'.”

Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, Noam Chomsky

“But when she was there beside the sea, absolutely alone, she cast the unpleasant, prickling garments from her, and for the first time in her life she stood naked in the open air, at the mercy of the sun, the breeze that beat upon her, and the waves that invited her.

How strange and awful it seemed to stand naked under the sky! How delicious! She felt like some newborn creature, opening it's eyes in a familiar world that it had never known.”

The Awakening, Kate Chopin

“Edna began to feel like one who awakens gradually out of a dream, a delicious, grotesque, impossible dream, to feel again the realities pressing into her soul. The physical need for sleep began to overtake her; the exuberance which had sustained her and exalted her spirit left her helpless and yielding to the conditions which crowded her in.”

The Awakening, Kate Chopin

“The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation. The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.”

The Awakening, Kate Chopin

“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.”

Deepak Chopra

“In the darkest hour the soul is replenished and given strength to continue and endure.”

Heart Warrior Chosa

“A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.”

Sir Winston Churchill

“Never give in. Never give in. Never. Never. Never.”

Sir Winston Churchill

“Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.”

Sir Winston Churchill

“I remember the very
things I do not wish to;
I cannot forget the
things I wish to forget.”

Cicero

“All pain is either severe or slight, if slight, it is easily endured; if severe, it will without doubt be brief. ”

Marcus Tullius Cicero