Ocean Vuong Quotes

“I don’t know / desire other than the need / to be shattered & rebuilt”
― Ocean Vuong, Night Sky with Exit Wounds

“In the body, where everything has a price,
I was a beggar.”
― Ocean Vuong, Night Sky with Exit Wounds

“Perhaps it was not a destination I sought, but merely a continuation.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“It was everything that made me want to be a sun, the only thing I knew that had no shadow.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“Even my name
knelt down inside me, asking
to be spared.”
― Ocean Vuong, Night Sky with Exit Wounds

“Who will be lost in the story we tell ourselves? A story, after all, is a kind of swallowing.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“...the ability to recognize beauty is not a passive act of seeing but an active endeavor of self understanding ...”
― Ocean Vuong

“the value of beauty is dependant on the cost of living”
― Ocean Vuong

“The one good thing about national anthems is that we're already on our feet, and therefore ready to run.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous