Solange > Solange's Quotes

“I imagine us in Eden—
two black boys in Paradise,
naked, no fig leaves.
Adam and Eve are long gone,
so Kieran and Michael
inherit the garden
and the serpent is forgotten
and the fruit on the tree of knowledge
has gone rotten”
― Dean Atta, The Black Flamingo

“Return whole, my children, your eyes a constellation of stars. Full of the knowledge that I love you, that we are what we carry—the years, the nights, and the seconds, and all the spaces in between. It flows through us, flows from within us. This love cannot be stopped. It grows—and it must be free. The time to dream is a sacred thing, Trell. It heals, lifts us up. Ola, every child, not just my own, needs it. Our world demands it. You’ve got to dream a future before you can build a future. Together, let us begin this dreaming awake.”
― Janelle Monáe, The Memory Librarian and Other Stories of Dirty Computer

“the centre of every poem is this:
The centre of every poem is this:
I have loved you. I have had to deal with that.

— Salma Deera, Letters from Medea (2015)”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“-Dream up something wild and improbable. Something beautiful and full of monsters.

-Beautiful and full of monsters?

-All the best stories are.”
― Laini Taylor, Strange the Dreamer

“Fresh starts were good; that separateness was where you could feel yourself, where you could learn who you were apart from everyone else.”
― Akwaeke Emezi, The Death of Vivek Oji

“There's something dangerous about the boredom of teenage girls.”
― Megan Abbott, Dare Me

“All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood.”
― Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

“Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.”
― Stephen King

“You’re not dead, but you’re not alive, either. You’re a wintergirl, Lia-Lia, caught in between the worlds. You’re a ghost with a beating heart. Soon you’ll cross the border and be with me. I’m so stoked. I miss you wicked.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Wintergirls

“There are a lot of human experiences that challenge the limits of our language,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons that we have poetry.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“In one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts, but we create them. We haunt ourselves.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Wintergirls

“Mortals. I envy you. You think you can change things. Stop the universe. Undo what was done long before you came along. You are such beautiful creatures.”
― Kami Garcia, Beautiful Creatures

“Reading is not optional.”
― Walter Dean Myers

“Tell me, Atlas.
What is heavier:

The world or its people's hearts?

— Atlas still stands but does anyone else?”
― Darshana Suresh, Howling at the Moon

“We both believe in monsters. But all the ghosts and demons are you. And all the angels and genies are you. All the kings, queens, Buddhas, beautiful boys. Inside you. No one can take them away. (Missing Angel Juan.)”
― Francesca Lia Block

“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

“Come on! What's so precious about a monster?”
― Junji Ito, Tomie

“When is a monster not a monster? Oh, when you love it.”
― Caitlyn Siehl, Literary Sexts: A Collection of Short & Sexy Love Poems

“There have been none like us before. And there will be none afterwards. Be careful what you write.”
― Sarah Dunant, Blood & Beauty

“Romeo and Juliet was basically on some gang shit. You could say she was a Queen Lord, and he was a GD. They went out on their own terms like some straight-up Gs.”
― Angie Thomas, Concrete Rose

“Not every bitch is a queen. Most chicks are just regular. Most of them know it and accept it, as long as nobody points it out. A queen is authentic, not because she says so, just because she is. A queen doesn't have to say nothing. Everybody can see it, and feel it too.”
― Sister Souljah

“I'm not saying I'm gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.”
― Tupac Shakur

“Burn it! Burn it. This is where the poems are,” I say, thumping a fist against my chest. “Will you burn me? Will you burn me, too?”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X

“We are different people now, yes, but those girls were magic.”
― Nina LaCour, We Are Okay

“The Devil is real. And he's not a little red man with horns and a tail. He can be beautiful. Because he's a fallen angel, and he used to be God's favorite.”
― Leah

“i’m a poet who writes in english come to share the worlds witchu”
― Ntozake Shange, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf

“You will go on and meet someone else and I'll just be a chapter in your tale, but for me, you were, you are and you always will be, the whole story.”
― Marian Keyes, The Other Side of the Story

“You're the only friend I need
Sharing beds like little kids
And laughing 'til our ribs get tough
But that will never be enough
You're the only friend I need
Sharing beds like little kids
And laughing 'til our ribs get tough
But that will never be enough”
― Lorde, Lorde - Pure Heroine Songbook: Piano/Vocal/Guitar

“No black woman writer in this culture can write "too much". Indeed, no woman writer can write "too much"...No woman has ever written enough.”
― bell hooks, Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work

“Sadness made for a better houseguest; at least it was quiet, reliable, consistent.”
― Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain