Kyle Labe > Quotes

“I really liked him and when you really like someone, not everything is simple to understand.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“Do you ever feel as if everything surrounding you is in slow motion, moving through tar? There you are - and there's the world. You're outside staring in the window, observing reality happen, but you don't exist in it. You just watch, and watch. That's how I feel, like the dead butterfly staring back at you through the glass.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“The sunsets here were always deep, passionate, and rich - always colors Camila thought she could take a shovel to and dig at for days.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“Mama once told me before she died that my blonde hair makes the sun go wild with envy.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“Sometimes I think that my own company is more suitable for me than if I were around others. Because of the person that I am.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“I don't question anything further because you don't question people when they open up to you: you just listen. Or, you should.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“Sometimes it's best not to examine someone's intentions, and just take them for the asshole they really are.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“Places are like smells - they can take you back anywhere.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“You can try and stop boys all you want, but in this world they all have a mind of their own and act on it. We girls can't afford that.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“The morning Mom tells me my skirt is too short, I find the lawn full of dead fledglings.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“Sometimes things are so bad, the only way to keep happy is to avoid them altogether.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“Oliver thought there weren't many standards to being a human being. His philosophy was to take a person for what makes them smile, and then leave them the hell alone. People have awful lives all over and they still manage to be good to others. He believed all you should really be is kind - that's it.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“I guess...I just want someone to love me and take me for who I am.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“I glance down to what I'm wearing. A crop top, a skirt - it's hot, and it made sense to me. I don't think it looks slutty; I think it looks like me.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“I hate labels, hate pronouns. They're so confining. They like some bird cage, y'know? Or prescription medicine. Some days I feel one ole way and some days another. Ain't that natural? Just call me they, them, whatever you need to make your ma happy.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“Sometimes you have to stuff certain memories so far in your back pocket that you forget they exist. And nothing that happens will cause you to pull it out. It's the only way I can keep my head on straight.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“Bianca decided they were all hypocrites, expected to love and fear God simultaneously, as if anyone can love and fear anything at one and the same time.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“There's something different when a woman does you wrong. We're supposed to be here for each other!”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“Going out in tights and wigs and drag, it takes a whole lot of courage...And those gays, they're just being themselves. And I think we owe a whole lot to them, because they're going out risking their lives just to be who they are, just so we can exist.”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories

“They were waiting for a bus when Oliver said to Lee, 'Being gay is like being invisible. No one ever tells you about the loneliness, the isolation of it. Your whole life is on the outside looking in. Everyone is straight and happy - and then there you are. We don't have any spaces. They think just because we can marry, just because we can wear rainbow pins on our shirt that we're equal. And it's not even the straights - it's the queer community too. We're horrible to each other. There's no kinship, no matter how much we say there is. I had someone tell me that two men loving one another is uncomplicated nowadays. I wanted to shake her and shout, What? Uncomplicated? Are you that egotistical? Can you not see? Personally I think one of the biggest lies that we tell gay youth is that it gets better. That narrative needs to cease. It doesn't get better. You only learn to deal with things better...”
― Kyle Labe, Butterflies Behind Glass & Other Stories