❝ life before death. strength before weakness. journey before destination. ❞

❝ perhaps what we desire can sometimes be so strong it overpowers our fate. ❞

❝ these dreams will be the death of me. ❞

❝ a writer should never have the audacity to write about themselves unless they’re willing to separate every layer of protection between the author’s soul and their book. the words should come directly from the center of the gut, tearing through flesh and bone as they break free. ugly and honest and bloody and a little bit terrifying, but completely exposed. ❞

❝ he thinks he'll be remembered as the villain in the story. but i forgot to tell him that the villain is usually the person who locks up the maiden and throws away the key. he was the one who let me out. ❞

❝ all things must progress, and progression is not always a steady incline. sometimes we must fall, sometimes we will rise. ❞

❝ if i am the phantom, it is because man's hatred has made me so. if i am to be saved it is because your love redeems me. ❞

❝ one of the great tragedies of life is knowing how many people in the world are made to soar, paint, sing, or steer—except they never get the chance to find out. ❞

❝ we need hope as much as we need bread and meat, we need hope, or else we cannot endure. ❞

❝ i am not empty. i am full to the brim with murder and revenge. i am overflowing and i do not think you wish for me to overflow onto you. ❞

❝ why, sometimes i've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast! ❞

❝ i knew who i was this morning, but i've changed a few times since then. ❞

❝ always eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. asleep or awake, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or bed—no escape. nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters in your skull. ❞

❝ hero of ages. not a hero that came once in the ages. but a hero who would span the ages. a hero who would preserve mankind throughout all its lives and times. neither preservation nor ruin, but both. god. ❞

❝ it's easy to believe in something when you win all the time...the losses are what define a man's faith. ❞

❝ the right belief is like a good cloak, i think. if it fits you well, it keeps you warm and safe. the wrong fit however, can suffocate. ❞

❝ you will think me cruel, very selfish, but love is always selfish; the more ardent the more selfish. how jealous i am you cannot know. you must come with me, loving me, to death; or else hate me, and still come with me, and hating me through death and after. there is no such word as indifference in my apathetic nature. ❞