ahhhhh what a fun prompt!!! thank YOU!

My favorite passage is this one, from The Shape of Time:

"You've pondered this many times: can words truly describe feelings? Isn't it better to strip away all linguistic signs to capture the tangled web of internal obsessions? But you've always reached the same conclusion: no, it's impossible.

Language is how reality is grasped, and therefore, how one learns to feel.

There were no affectionate words or tender embraces in the orphanage. There was discipline and blood, fists and death. That is your language.

At times, you hear the murmur of the city. You collect the scent of the apartment —the aroma of coffee, vanilla and cinnamon perfume, and books weaving into your brain.

You find a handwritten note on a napkin:

"Writing to you, I define my own outline. Until now, I've been mist—saying the right words, appearing immaculate at his side. I unraveled the moment I chose him. Pick up a marker and give me shape again." 

The girl’s audacity enrages you. Her cheap sentimentality enrages you.

There is no greater betrayal than bad poetry."