Mark Oshiro > Quotes

“Anger is a gift. Remember that." She stood. "You gotta grasp onto it, hold it tight and use it as ammunition. You use that anger to get things done instead of just stewing in it.”
― Mark Oshiro, Anger Is a Gift

“It's an insidious thing," Wanda said. "It never happens overnight. This kind of thing crept into our community a long time ago. It latched on. It fed on prejudice. Selfishness. Peoples inability to see life through someone else's eyes. And it grew, bigger and bigger, until we got to a point where some people don't even question why a cop should be allowed to shoot first and ask questions later.”
― Mark Oshiro, Anger Is a Gift

“But we just wanted to go to school." Her voice broke again. "I'm sixteen. I shouldn't have to beg for that. But we just want to get to class without fearing for our lives.”
― Mark Oshiro, Anger Is a Gift

“What should the Oakland Police Department do next?'
Next? Moss thought. [...]
'Stop killing us.'
Then Moss walked away from it all.”
― Mark Oshiro, Anger Is a Gift

“It's like people want me to be this version of a person that isn't me. Like, always ready to fight and march and rally, and I don't even get to be myself.”
― Mark Oshiro, Anger Is a Gift

“But when you’ve wandered a desert for most of your life, you are overjoyed when it rains.”
― Mark Oshiro, Into the Light

“We stretch ourselves: to fit within the roles we are given. To make ourselves look better to those around us. To convince one another that we are good people in a world so vacant. Each of us a desert.”
― Mark Oshiro, Each of Us a Desert

“You can't know something's missing if you don't know it exists. And that, to me, is sort of the greatest tragedy about all of this (in regard to the removal of LGBTQIA+ stories from libraries and classroom shelves).”
― Mark Oshiro

“It wasn't the first time Moss had heard the pop of a gunshot. Nor was it the first time he'd heard the sickening sound of air leaving someone's body. The sound meant the worst.”
― Mark Oshiro, Anger Is a Gift

“I’m sorry I never understood … until now,” she said, and that got Moss to turn his head slightly, and he looked straight at her, saw the rawness and terror in her eyes, and he inclined his head. It was his way of saying: Now you know.

He watched her gasp for breath, watched her lean her head back, desperate for air, watched her cry openly. This was what it took. This was the line she had to cross. He didn’t know if it was enough.”
― Mark Oshiro, Anger Is a Gift

“All our myths were different. Did that make them lies? Or were we simply trying to understand the horrors that you had given us?”
― Mark Oshiro, Each of Us a Desert

“I would rather make another terrible decision than live knowing that I hadn't tried.”
― Mark Oshiro, Each of Us a Desert

“Vi and Olivia spun off. Antonio hesitated, and Seb saw the glassy eyes, the quivering lip, the dawning realization.
'Really?" said Antonio. 'You mean it?'
He pulled Antonio in for a kiss. It was short, but it was enough for now.
'Yes,' said Seb. 'I mean it.'
Right then, Sebastián Rojas got to see a new expression on Antonio's face.
The one where he was both surprised *and* delighted.”
― Mark Oshiro, That Way Madness Lies

“Oh, Moss," she said. "How little faith you have in others."
"Do you blame me? I don't have much faith to go on these days, what with the world ending around us."
"You know, sometimes it does feel like we're in one of those trendy dystopian novels," she admitted. "Except a lot less white.”
― Mark Oshiro, Anger Is a Gift

“You fall in love. He is Latino like you. You will be together for years. And even when it falls apart, it still feels like a success. (Much later, of course.) Because until it happened, and until it ended, you didn't know it was possible to be loved like that.”
― Mark Oshiro, Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed: 15 Voices from the Latinx Diaspora

“There was comfort in knowing that our guardian had not left us, but I still had to distract myself in order to remain hopeful.”
― Mark Oshiro, Each of Us a Desert

“Moss glanced down at Reg. His friend shook his head. “Not now,” Reg whispered, and his voice sounded so lost, so young, that Moss deflated, the rage rushing out of him, the river of anger gone.

Reg smiled at Moss, and then he passed out.”
― Mark Oshiro, Anger Is a Gift

“It’s like they can’t avoid it,” said Kaisha. “We were literally there to protest against them using deadly force, so they responded with … deadly force. Incredible.” “You had one job,” Reg joked, but it seemed the whole group was out of laughter.”
― Mark Oshiro, Anger Is a Gift

“The sound of sunlight is the gentle scurrying of lizards and mice, desperate to find shade and comfort. It's the earth, groaning and creaking as it wakes up, as the moisture within it is pulled away, cracking and breaking the soil. It is the scratching echo of our feet pressing.”
― Mark Oshiro, Each of Us a Desert

“Be yourself. Be over the top. Outlast them. Show them that no amount of fear will ever make you chance who you are.”
― Mark Oshiro, The Insiders

“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement, Kimberlé Crenshaw, editor Race and Police Brutality: Roots of an Urban Dilemma, Malcolm D. Holmes and Brad W. Smith Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A., Luis J. Rodriguez Brotherhood of Corruption: A Cop Breaks the Silence on Police Abuse, Brutality, and Racial Profiling, Juan Antonio Juarez Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America, Kristian Williams Don’t Shut Me Out!: Some Thoughts on How to Move a Group of People From One Point to Another OR Some Basic Steps Toward Becoming a Good Political Organizer!, James Forman”
― Mark Oshiro, Anger Is a Gift

“Miau.”
― Mark Oshiro, The Sun and the Star

“I believe that there is too much of me for you ever to take. I believe I am more important than the role you cast me into,”
― Mark Oshiro, Each of Us a Desert

“We are the children of the reckoning.
You tried to send us away. You tried to destroy us. You tried to diminish us. You tried to forget us.
This means you never believed what we were capable of doing.”
― Mark Oshiro, Reclaim the Stars: 17 Tales Across Realms & Space

“Moss raised up his water. “To … new possibilities,” he said. “To good food and even better company,” said Javier. “And to dismantling a system of violence in my school,” said Moss”
― Mark Oshiro, Anger Is a Gift

“Be yourself. Be over the top. Outlast them. Show them that no amount of fear will ever make you change who you are.”
― Mark Oshiro, The Insiders