As a writer, reading is the foundation that brought me to where I am today. The literary pieces that shaped me, that impacted me, are a never-ending list. Sharing these few and some of my favorite quotes from them is my way of saying: I hope something catches your eye, I hope something sparks your interest and you read on.

1. "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

"I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."

"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us."

"I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice. I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh."

2. "Beautiful Lies" by Lisa Unger

“When you start to really know someone, all his physical characteristics start to disappear. You begin to dwell in his energy, recognize the scent of his skin. You see only the essence of the person, not the shell. That's why you can't fall in love with beauty. You can lust after it, be infatuated by it, want to own it. You can love it with your eyes and body but not your heart. And that's why, when you really connect with a person's inner self, any physical imperfections disappear, become irrelevant.”

“And we stood like that. The joining of hands is highly underrated in the acts of intimacy. You kiss acquaintances or colleagues, casually to say hello or good-bye. You might even kiss a close friend chastely on the lips. You might quickly hug anyone you knew. You might even meet someone at a party, take him home and sleep with him, never to see him or hear from him again. But to join hands and stand holding each other that way, with the electricity of possibilities flowing between you? The tenderness of it, the promise of it, is only something you share with a few people in your life.”

“Kindness, I think, comes from learning hard lessons well, from falling and picking yourself up. It comes from surviving failure and loss. It implies an understanding of the human condition, forgives its many flaws and quirks.”

3. "Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams

“Don’t Panic.”

"Would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?"

"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"

"This planet has—or rather had—a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy."

4. "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahnuik

“The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club.”

“The second rule of Fight Club is: you DO NOT talk about Fight Club!”

"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything."

"This is your life and its ending one moment at a time."