Ally

“The barricades that held us down will not work anymore. And when silence and shame are gone, there will be nothing to stop us. We will not stand by as our mouths are covered, bodies entered. We will speak, we will speak, we will speak.”
― Chanel Miller, Know My Name

“We are creatures of the water and the dust, he thought, made of the very same stuff. We have a relationship with it all, integral and personal, no matter who or where or when we are. When we forget, that's when we feel untethered and lost. That's when we lose perspective. And make our biggest mistakes.”
― A.W. Baldwin, Diamonds of Devil's Tail

“He'd never seen the galaxy like this before, so close, so clear, parallel tracks of stars merging and separating, all of it wheeling as one unit across the horizon. It was a secret, he thought, hidden entirely from view when the sun was up, readily forgotten by day. But it was ever present, dominating reality, determining fate, perhaps, its true nature revealed only when the sun went down, only in the alchemy of night. He looked beyond the nebula, into the emptiness that cradled those blazing suns and galaxies all the way to the beginning of time, but as intently as he stared, he still could not fathom it. Never had he felt like such a single, tiny passenger on such a fragile, spinning, speck of a planet as he did right here, in the middle of a desert miles and miles from anyone else.”
― A.W. Baldwin, Diamonds of Devil's Tail

“I’ve been left behind before, but I was always caught by surprise. I thought it would hurt less if I saw it coming. But now I realize that knowing doesn’t lessen the pain, it just gives it a head start.”
― Angeline Boulley, Firekeeper’s Daughter