Catherine Marie Holley

“Have you ever, for even a second, thought about how hard it is for people like me just to stay alive?”
― Inio Asano, A Girl on the Shore

“She would die, and maybe everyone would forget that she had ever lived.”
― Amy Zhang, Falling into Place

“She understood that pain was necessary in the world, a sense as critical as sight or hearing. It functioned to keep people safe, a very persuasive stop sign. In a way it was the mother to us all, slapping us back from the hot stove, forcing us to put down the sharp knife, teaching us self-preservation, training care into our bones. Pain was the reason we were alive. It was why as children we didn't toss ourselves down the staircase for the thrill of the ride, didn't stop eating just to bother our parents, didn't nibble off our fingertips to examine our insides. Pain made our existence in this world possible, opened life up to us...
Unstoppable pain was different. The sensation in this case was not a mother. It was an abuser. It taught nothing. Instead it wrapped itself around the ribs, settled on the shoulders, a weight to be borne, making it hard to breathe or talk.”
― Audrey Schulman, Theory of Bastards

“That pain moves when you move; it mutters between every breath; it spikes your ears; it rips. You think pain can’t be any more horrible than that.

Until you discover that the well is bottomless. There’s always more.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, Drowning Instinct