"The conductor stepped up, tapped twice on the rostrum, and a great hush descended. I felt the stillness, the auditorium alive, expectant. Then he brought down his baton and suddenly everything was pure sound. I felt the music like a physical thing; it didn't just sit in my ears, it flowed through me, around me, made my senses vibrate. It made my skin prickle and my palms dampen. Will hadn't described any of it like this. I had thought I might be bored. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard.
And it made my imagination do unexpected things; as I sat there, I found myself thinking of things I hadn't thought of for years, old emotions washing over me, new thoughts and ideas being stretched out of shape. It was almost too much, but I didn't want it to stop. I wanted to sit there forever."

- Jojo Moyes, "Me Before You". Penguin Books, 2012. 

la femme au carnet rouge.

"Can you experience nostalgia for something that hasn't happened? We talk of 'regrets' about the course of our lives, when we are almost certain we have taken the wrong decision; but one can also be enveloped in a sweet and mysterious euphoria, a sort of nostalgia for what might have been."

"I haven't kept a diary since I was seventeen. I think it was soon after my baccalauréat that I gave it up for reasons I'm not sure of, because from the age of twelve or thirteen I had written one religiously. (Note to self: Look for my diaries in the boxes in the cellar.) I remember sticking all kinds of things in them: tickets from films and plays I had been to see, leaves I had picked up on walks and bills for meals I had eaten on café terraces. They were a record of what I had done when, down to the nearest minute. I think I held on to them as 'evidence' of some kind. They helped me to find my place in the world and, in a broader sense, to prove to myself that I really existed. I suppose I must have decided at some point that I no longer needed to do that, because I gave up writing a diary, stopped telling the story of my life and tried to just live it instead."

- from "The Red Notebook" by Antoine Laurain. a beautiful little treasure of a book. 

"[...] before you find your voice, you should decide what you stand for. This has been the biggest lesson I've learnt in my career. You need to define your opinion on issues that matter and stay true to it. [...] in the end, most of the successful and influential women I've met have made it to the top by being true to who they are, regardless of what others expect."

- Lorraine Candy, Editor-in Chief, Elle UK, Editor's Letter, March 2015

ARTlexa.

ARTlexa chung on tumblr.

l.o.v.e.

„What are you going to do? Everything, is my guess. It will be a little messy, but embrace the mess. It will be complicated, but rejoice in the complications. It will not be anything like what you think it will be like, but surprises are good for you. And don’t be frightened: you can always change your mind.“

-       Nora Ephron, Commencement Address to Wellesley Class of 1996.

[from: The MOST of Nora Ephron]