Gabriela Orozco > Gabriela's Quotes

“Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me.”
― Zora Neale Hurston

“A man is born into this world with only a tiny spark of goodness in him. The spark is God, it is the soul; the rest is ugliness and evil, a shell. The spark must be guarded like a treasure, it must be nurtured, it must be fanned into flame. It must learn to seek out other sparks, it must dominate the shell. Anything can be a shell, Reuven. Anything. Indifference, laziness, brutality, and genius. Yes, even a great mind can be a shell and choke the spark.”
― Chaim Potok, The Chosen

“What political favors were not ultimately about pig shit and how to get rid of it?”
― Idra Novey, Those Who Knew

“God smiles through the cracks in broken things.”
― Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar, The Map of Salt and Stars

“If you're Native American and you pray to the wolves, you're a savage. If you're African and you pray to your ancestors, you're a primitive. But when white people pray to a guy who turns water into wine, well, that's just common sense.”
― Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

“For the ones who dream of stranger worlds.”
― V.E. Schwab, A Darker Shade of Magic

“These were the names she whispered in the dark.
These were the pieces she brought back into place.
These were the wolves she rode to war.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“On our wedding night," she said, "I will cut out your tongue and swallow it. Then both tongues that spoke our marriage vows will belong to me, and I will be wed only to myself. You will most likely choke to death on your own blood, which will be unfortunate, but I will be both husband and wife and therefore not a widow to be pitied.”
― Kiersten White, And I Darken

“Her spine was steel. Her heart was armor. Her eyes were fire.”
― Kiersten White, And I Darken

“To have made a coat of words and cloaked yourself in it.”
― Idra Novey, Ways to Disappear

“He wondered what it would take for there to be a true reckoning with the repressive roles men imposed on each other, a moment when acting despotic would finally be recognized as the weakness that it was.”
― Idra Novey, Those Who Knew

“She had a delicate, chiseled face but there was something ferocious about her, too—a scrutiny of the world so intense it bordered on sensual.”
― Idra Novey, Those Who Knew

“To kiss a man who understood none of the connotations of her country had been like a vacation from herself.”
― Idra Novey, Those Who Knew

“Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the same horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.

Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.”
― Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

“When God had made The Man, he made him out of stuff that sung all the time and glittered all over. Some angels got jealous and chopped him into millions of pieces, but still he glittered and hummed. So they beat him down to nothing but sparks but each little spark had a shine and a song. So they covered each one over with mud. And the lonesomeness in the sparks make them hunt for one another.”
― Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

“When this all started, when the US of A got into this war and the Supreme Court decided what the hell, let's send women to, everyone wondered what effect it would have.

Could women fight my girl Rio has a shiny Silver Star, A fistful of Purple Hearts, and a notched M1 that say yes.

Could the men fight alongside women, or would the simple creatures be too distracted by feminine curves? Well, I won't spend a long night in a hole with Luther gear, who has never been a gentleman but he is a good soldier and he never made a pass at me. Possibly he was distracted by the artillery garage coming down on our heads. Possibly was that I hadn't showered in ... God only knows how long you have to ask my fleas. We were not a man and a woman in that hole we were too scared little babies screaming and cursing and so we could be grateful for the warmth of our own piss running down our legs.

It was not a romantic evening.”
― Michael Grant, Purple Hearts

“Could you see yourself sitting down to tea with these girls? Will it surprise you to learn that one of them went on to gun down three unarmed German prisoners? Will it shock you to learn that one lit her cigarette from the flames of a burning German SS officer?”
― Michael Grant, Front Lines

“Everybody betrayed her, so why expect otherwise? But it turned out that distrust could fool you and endanger you, just as trust could.”
― Frances Hardinge, A Skinful of Shadows

“They understood something together at that moment, Makepeace and Bear. Sometimes you had to be patient through pain, or people gave you more pain. Sometimes you had to weather everything and take your bruises. If you were lucky, and if everyone thought you were tamed and trained... there might come a time when you could strike.”
― Frances Hardinge, A Skinful of Shadows

“Lord Fellmotte was not a man. He was an ancient committee. A parliament of deathly rooks in a dying tree.”
― Frances Hardinge, A Skinful of Shadows

“Back in Poplar, everyone had known that the King was being led astray by evil advisers and Catholic plots, and the Parliament was full of brave, honest, clear-sighted men who wanted the best for everybody. It had been so obvious! It had been common sense! . . .

But here in Grizehayes, it was just as obvious to everybody that a power-hungry Parliament driven to frenzy by crazy Puritans was trying to steal power from the rightful King. Neither side seemed to be stupid, and both were equally certain.

Was I raised by Puritans? I believed what they believed back then. Were we all frothing mad? Or was I right then, and am I mad now?”
― Frances Hardinge, A Skinful of Shadows

“Stories are powerful, but gather too many of the words of others in your heart and they will drown out your own. Remember that”
― Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar, The Map of Salt and Stars

“I am a woman and a warrior. If you think I can't be both, you've been lied to.”
― Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar, The Map of Salt and Stars

“But safety is not about never having bad things happen to you. It's about knowing that the bad things can't separate us from each other.”
― Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar, The Map of Salt and Stars

“Every place you go becomes a part of you. But none more so than home.”
― Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar, The Map of Salt and Stars

“The most important places on a map are the places we haven't been yet”
― Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar, The Map of Salt and Stars

“Like most people, the name history gave them isn't what they call themselves.”
― Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar, The Map of Salt and Stars

“I am the dust of stars inhaled.”
― Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar, The Map of Salt and Stars

“People think that stories can be walled off, kept outside and separate. They can’t. Stories are inside you”
― Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar, The Map of Salt and Stars

“I ask, 'Do you think there's a place in the world where nobody has ever put their feet?'

'I think there are more of them than the other way around,' Mama says.”
― Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar, The Map of Salt and Stars