Hannah

“Am I in love with her already? Perhaps. Or maybe I’m just confusing love with comfort, and I’m okay with that. Is there any difference between love and a safe harbor from a storm? Should there be? There are a lot of different kinds of love, and though I may not be able to tell them apart from each other, I appreciate all of them the same.”
― Andrew Joseph White, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth

“My name is Daphne.'
Daphne?
In that moment, it's as if I've peeled the skin away from the chest of a patient, revealing a beating heart. A boy could not say that name as if terrified the syllables will break in the mouth. A boy-born-boy could not recognize what I am.
Of course her name is Daphne.
I stand up straight, taking a step from the door; and then another, and another.
She's like me.”
― Andrew Joseph White, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth

“I do not get to savor the masculine cut of my clothes, or the illusion of short hair, or the feeting joy of my skin feeling like mine. Instead, I have to worry if my boyhood is convincing enough to keep me safe.

There is no joy in that. Only fear.”
― Andrew Joseph White, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth

“I want to take myself apart into something else, and if I cannot do that, I want to destroy every part of it that could ever be used against me.”
― Andrew Joseph White, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth