Nathan

“One's thought patterns become different, he said, when forced into the confines of a rigid and unfamiliar tongue. Certain common ideas become inexpressible; other, previously undreamt-of ones spring to life, finding miraculous new articulation. I can only say that an incendium is in its nature entirely different from the feu with which a Frenchman lights his cigarette, and both are very different from the stark, inhuman pur that the Greeks knew, the pur that roared from the towers of Ilion or leapt and screamed on that desolate, windy beach, from the funeral pyre of Patroklos.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“It is a terrible thing to learn as a child that one is a being separate from all the world, that no one and no thing hurts along with one’s burned tongues and skinned knees, that one’s aches and pains are all one’s own.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“it may be a superhuman effort to lose oneself so completely, but that’s nothing compared to the effort of getting oneself back again”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“It seemed the best thing was just to come right out and say it. 'You know,' I said, 'I'm really not attracted to you. I mean, not that -'
'Isn't that interesting,' he said coolly. 'I'm really not attracted to you, either.'
'But -'
'You were there.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History