![Loading... Loading...](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/loading_big-5baaead7062b26142a19d19a9bccf5c2.gif)
![Gwendolyn Brooks](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/authors/1619201101i/25128._UY200_CR12,0,200,200_.jpg)
“He who was Goodness, Gentleness,
And Dignity is free,
Translates to public Love
Old private charity.”
―
And Dignity is free,
Translates to public Love
Old private charity.”
―
![Toni Morrison](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/authors/1494211316i/3534._UX200_CR0,24,200,200_.jpg)
“I am staring out of the window in an extremely dark mood, feeling helpless. Then a friend, a fellow artist, calls... he asks, ‘How are you?' and instead of ‘Oh, fine... and you?', I blurt out the truth: ‘Not well. Not only am I depressed, I can’t seem to work, to write; it’s as though I am paralyzed, unable to write anything... I’ve never felt this way before…' I am about to explain with further detail when he interrupts, shouting: ‘No! No, no, no! This is precisely the time when artists go to work... not when everything is fine, but in times of dread. That’s our job.' I felt foolish the rest of the morning, especially when I recalled the artists who had done their work in gulags, prison cells, hospital beds; who did their work while hounded, exiled, reviled, pilloried. And those who were executed... this is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”
―
―
![Ahmed Salah Al-Mahdi](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/authors/1555709395i/15639908._UX200_CR0,22,200,200_.jpg)
“The concept of death seems distant—even unimaginable—to the mind of a child, until that child loses someone close to their heart. Then they begin to realize the cruelty of death, and what it means when someone who was once so close ceases to exist.”
― ريم
― ريم
![Toni Morrison](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/authors/1494211316i/3534._UX200_CR0,24,200,200_.jpg)
“In her way, her strangeness, her naïveté, her craving for the other half of her equation was the consequence of an idle imagination. Had she paints, or clay, or knew the discipline of the dance, or strings; had she anything to engage her tremendous curiosity and her gift for metaphor, she might have exchanged the restlessness and preoccupation with whim for an activity that provided her with all she yearned for. And like any artist with no art form, she became dangerous.”
― Sula
― Sula
![Yū Miri](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/authors/1447320315i/5493334._UX200_CR0,18,200,200_.jpg)
“I went outside. The rain had stopped.
The air, washed by the rain, was serene, and the waves sounded closer than usual.
The full moon shone like a pearl in the night sky.
The moonlight made it look as if all the houses had sunk to the bottom of a lake.
The road stretched ahead, white.
It was the road that led to Migitahama.
A gust of wind and the petals from a wild cherry tree went dancing, white against the darkness, and I remembered then that the cherry trees here blossomed two or three weeks later than in Tokyo.
The waves roared.
I stood alone in the darkness.
Light does not illuminate.
It only looks for things to illuminate.
And I had never been found by the light.
I would always be in darkness—”
― Tokyo Ueno Station
The air, washed by the rain, was serene, and the waves sounded closer than usual.
The full moon shone like a pearl in the night sky.
The moonlight made it look as if all the houses had sunk to the bottom of a lake.
The road stretched ahead, white.
It was the road that led to Migitahama.
A gust of wind and the petals from a wild cherry tree went dancing, white against the darkness, and I remembered then that the cherry trees here blossomed two or three weeks later than in Tokyo.
The waves roared.
I stood alone in the darkness.
Light does not illuminate.
It only looks for things to illuminate.
And I had never been found by the light.
I would always be in darkness—”
― Tokyo Ueno Station
Golden’s 2023 Year in Books
Take a look at Golden’s Year in Books. The good, the bad, the long, the short—it’s all here.
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Golden
Lists liked by Golden