Wesley

“If we ever make it to shore, he says, I will name our son after this water. I will learn to love a monster”
― Ocean Vuong, Night Sky with Exit Wounds

“I remember the room. How it burned because Lan sung of fire, surrounded by her daughters. Smoke rising and collecting in the corners. The table in the middle a bright blaze. The women with their eyes closed and the words relentless. The walls a moving screen of images flashing as each verse descended to the next: a sunlit intersection in a city no longer there. A city with no name. A white man standing beside a tank with his black-haired daughter in his arms. A family sleeping in a bomb crater. A family hiding underneath a table. Do you understand? All I was given was a table. A table in lieu of a house. A table in lieu of history.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“As a rule, “little” is always smaller than “small.” Don’t ask me why.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“What if art was not measured by quantity but ricochets?”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous