Xhenet Aliu > Quotes

“I’m not trying to get hurt, either. I’m not looking for pain,” I said. “You should be,” she said. “You should look all the time for it, so you know where it is, and you can stay far, far away.”
― Xhenet Aliu, Brass

“It isn't about winning or losing. It isn't even about truth or lies, since your point was premised on an embellished story about standing up to Margarita, when all you really did was call out a factual error in her ethnic slurring. The point was about *doing* and *being*, making the little butterfly ripple than would eventually cause a tornado somewhere on the other side of the ocean, or at least a little chatter on the other side of the baseball field at Crosby High School. It's almost better that it was all based on a lie, because it makes you realize you can go back and revise your own history, and isn't that almost as good as making your own future, being able to invent your own past as well?”
― Xhenet Aliu, Brass

“Funny when you have to remind yourself about things that, not long ago, consumed your every thought.”
― Xhenet Aliu, Brass

“Empathy’s not really optional if you want to fully and productively engage with the world.”
― Xhenet Aliu

“And then I just studied the praying mantis for a while. I watched her move her head around and rub her hands together like she was a villain with an evil plan to take over the universe. I decided to name her Melissa.”
― Xhenet Aliu, Domesticated Wild Things and Other Stories

“How was I supposed to know that Bashkim’s past wasn’t a cold he could shake but a terminal condition? How was I supposed to know that everybody’s was?”
― Xhenet Aliu, Brass