Daniel José Older > Quotes

“Crazy. It was the same word María and Tía Rosa flung at Grandpa Lázaro. The same word anyone said when they didn't understand something. "Crazy" was a way to shut people up, disregard them entirely.”
― Daniel José Older, Shadowshaper

“Today she looked menacingly into the mirror and said: “I’m Sierra María Santiago. I am what I am. Enough.” She sighed. These days were spooky enough without her talking to herself. “More than enough.”
― Daniel José Older, Shadowshaper

“It’s really nice to meet you, sir. You drive like a wild maniac, and I respect that.”
― Daniel José Older, Shadowshaper

“A scar isn't about the injury, it's about the healing.”
― Daniel José Older, Salsa Nocturna: Stories

“Maybe the word hasn’t been invented yet – that thing beyond diversity. We often define movements by what they’re against, but the final goal is greater than the powers it dismantles, deeper than any statistic. It’s something like equity – a commitment to harvesting a narrative language so broad it has no face, no name.”
― Daniel José Older

“Bennie's corner of Brooklyn looked different every time Sierra passed through it. She stopped at the corner of Washington Avenue and St. John's Place to take in the changing scenery. A half block from where she stood, she'd skinned her knee playing hopscotch while juiced up on iceys and sugar drinks. Bennie's brother, Vincent, had been killed by the cops on the adjacent corner, just a few steps from his own front door. Now her best friend's neighborhood felt like another planet. The place Sierra and Bennie used to get their hair done had turned into a fancy bakery of some kind, and yes, the coffee was good, but you couldn't get a cup for less than three dollars. Plus, every time Sierra went in, the hip, young white kid behind the counter gave her either the don't-cause-no-trouble look or the I-want-to-adopt-you look. The Takeover (as Bennie had dubbed it once) had been going on for a few years now, but tonight its pace seemed to have accelerated tenfold. Sierra couldn't find a single brown face on the block. It looked like a late-night frat party had just let out; she was getting funny stares from all sides--as if she was the out-of-place one, she thought. And then, sadly, she realized she was the out-of-place one.”
― Daniel José Older, Shadowshaper

“It’s a whole other kind of sorcery—pulling the pieces of a shattered heart back together, and it’s one I know nothing about.”
― Daniel José Older, Half-Resurrection Blues

“You can't tiptoe toward justice. You can't walk up to the door all polite and knock once or twice, hoping someone's home. Justice is a door that, when closed, must be kicked in.”
― Daniel José Older, The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race

“Her voice carried the voices of a hundred thousand souls in it; a whole history of resistance and rage moved with her.”
― Daniel José Older, Shadowshaper

“The boy had seemed to light up the whole world when he'd first arrived: this simple, impossible sliver of hope amid so much death and destruction.”
― Daniel José Older, Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel

“Ben nodded then opened a toothy grin of his own. “Unca Wanwo!”
“Hey, little starfighter,” Lando said.
“All right,” Leia said. “I’ll let you guys go. Be safe out there.” She blew Han a kiss and waved at the other two. “Say bye, Ben.”
“Come back, Dada,” Ben said, articulating each word carefully.”
― Daniel José Older, Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel

“If we didn’t we’d be summarily executed, remember? Or long-distance choke-smashed by your beloved archwizard woo-woo-in-chief.”
― Daniel José Older, Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View

“Location of Incident (Settlement, Planet, Region): Mos Eisley, Tatooine, Outer Rim Were any other members of your detachment involved in this incident? Oh yes. Very much so. Which ones? (Be specific!) Literally all of them.”
― Daniel José Older, Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View

“The same word anyone said when they didn’t understand something. Crazy was a way to shut people up, disregard them entirely.”
― Daniel José Older, Shadowshaper

“But once when she was chatting with some stupid boy online, she described herself as the color of coffee with not enough milk. There was a pause in the conversation, and the words glared back at her strangely, like the echo of a burp in an empty auditorium. She wondered if what she’d typed was burning holes in her chat partner too. Then he typed o thas hot yo and she’d quickly slammed her laptop shut. In the sudden darkness of her bedroom, the words had lingered as if imprinted in her forehead: not enough. The worst part about it, the part she couldn’t let go of, was that the thought came from her. Not from one of the teachers or guidance counselors whose eyes said it again and again over sticky-sweet smiles. Not from some cop on Marcy Avenue or Tía Rosa. It came from somewhere deep inside her. And that meant that for all the times she’d shrugged off one of those slurs, some little tentacle of them still crawled its way toward her heart. Not enough milk. Not light enough. Morena. Negra. No matter what she did, that little voice came creeping back, persistent and unsatisfied. Not enough.”
― Daniel José Older, Shadowshaper

“We are entwined. I drew power from the spirits and spirit workers and I returned it to them tenfold. The true source of shadowshaper magic is in that connection, community, Sierra. We are interdependent.”
― Daniel José Older, Shadowshaper

“The dead were so alive! They carried their whole lives with them in those tall, walking shadows, brought each second, each thrill and tragedy with them wherever they went.”
― Daniel José Older, Shadowshaper

“What do you do when you’ve already torn down the world to make a better one and the better one turns out to be just as rotten as the one you shattered?”
― Daniel José Older, The Book of Lost Saints: A Cuban American Family Saga of Love, Betrayal, and Revolution

“We thought Forever-Player Lando was bad. Head-Over-Heels Lando might be ten times worse.”
“Yikes. Hadn’t thought of that.”
― Daniel José Older, Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel

“Names always matter," Maz said..."And yours is such a lonely one, when you think about it."
Han had, plenty, and now that familiar sorrow crept back over his heart, an eclipse on never-ending repeat.”
― Daniel José Older, Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel

“Is this about love, El? Did you finally discover how droids can love and now you’ve got me chasing some handsome droid boy out into the far reaches of the galaxy?” “I’m curious why you presume the droid I am interested in would be a boy.” Lando slammed the steering panel in triumph.”
― Daniel José Older, Last Shot

“Maybe we’re our own makers, no matter who put the parts together.”
― Daniel José Older, Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel

“Papa Acevedo always used to say people don’t see what they’re not looking for.”
― Daniel José Older, Shadowshaper

“It never failed; even today, with paintings crying and strangers lurking, the scent of her mom’s chicken and rice eased her mind away from all that trouble, at least for a few seconds.”
― Daniel José Older, Shadowshaper

“Han hated planning. He also hated preparing. But what he really hated above everything else, besides maybe the Empire itself, was meetings.”
― Daniel José Older, Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel

“How do you mourn someone who's not dead yet?”
― Daniel José Older, Reclaim the Stars: 17 Tales Across Realms & Space

“And anyway,” L3 went on, “who is the Maker but our own selves, really? Sure, some guy in a factory probably pieced me together originally, and someone else programmed me, so to speak. But then the galaxy itself forged me into who I am. Because we learn, Lando. We’re programmed to learn. Which means we grow. We grow away from that singular moment of creation, become something new with each changing moment of our lives—yes, lives— and look at me: these parts” — she ran her hand along the mesh wiring and the rebranded astromech of her midsection—“I did this. So maybe when we say The Maker we’re referring to the whole galaxy, or maybe we just mean ourselves. Maybe we’re our own makers, no matter who put the parts together.”
― Daniel José Older, Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel

“that true sheet-grabbing throb that emanated from the sweat-soaked room on the third floor.”
― Daniel José Older, Half-Resurrection Blues

“Death always wins. Life is just a blip. It's a shiny, hyperactive blip, but a blip nonetheless, and no matter how strong or wily or rich a life may be, the slippery slope always leads to the great nothing.”
― Daniel José Older, Salsa Nocturna: Stories

“Just like an organic to be so binary in their logic. A thing can be a thing and also not a thing, you know.”
― Daniel José Older, Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel