Let Hernandez

“Does it go away?" she asks. "Missing each other?"
I think about how much I missed Maman. I still do, though it isn´t as acute as it once was.
"A little bit," I whisper.
"Enough so that life continues. In a year you won´t even think about me. " She turns around in my arms and looks up at me, tugging at a strand of my hair.
"don´t say stupid things, Sahar. You´re smarter than that.”
― Sara Farizan, If You Could Be Mine

“The most pernicious message relayed by pornography is that women are natural sexual prey to men and love it; that sexuality and violence are congruent; and that for women sex is essentially masochistic, humiliation pleasurable, physical abuse erotic. But along with this message comes another, not always recognized: that enforced submission and the use of cruelty, if played out in heterosexual pairing, is sexually "normal," while sensuality between women, including erotic mutuality and respect, is "queer," "sick," and either pornographic in itself or not very exciting compared with the sexuality of whips and bondage. Pornography does not simply create a climate in which sex
and violence are interchangeable; it widens the range of behavior considered
acceptable from men in heterosexual intercourse-behavior which reiteratively
strips women of their autonomy, dignity, and sexual potential, including the potential of loving and being loved by women in mutuality and integrity.”
― Adrienne Rich, Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence

“You bitch," I whispered, "I love you." Then I came.”
― Charles Bukowski, Factotum

“So don't judge me, unless you've fallen asleep on a couch with your ill child, thinking this night might be her last.
Ask instead: would you do it?
Would you give up your vengeance against someone you hate if it meant saving someone you love?
Would you want your dreams to come true if it meant granting your enemy's dying wish?”
― Jodi Picoult, Change of Heart