Aley Schiessl-Moore

“Was this the real me? Stripped of the ability to look like a punk- what defined me as one? Not my jacket. Not my clothes. My friends? My enemies? No. What I did determined who I was, not what I looked like or what I liked. My actions and reactions. Did I emerge from the shell? I felt naked and free. Was I now pupa or chrysalis? I felt like myself- and that was what punk was. The freedom to be who I was unapologetically, even if I hadn't chosen it.”
― Phúc Trần, Sigh, Gone: A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In

“I do not owe my opponents my affection, warmth, or regard. But I do owe myself a chance to live in this world without the burden of hate.”
― Valarie Kaur, See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love

“Coyote power: surviving by one’s own intelligence and wits when others cannot; embracing existence in a mad, dancing, laughing, sympathetic expression of pure joy at evading the grimmest of fates; exulting in sheer aliveness; recognizing our shortcomings with rueful chagrin.”
― Dan Flores, Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History

“This life is beautiful, but there is no such beauty in eternity; its glory is only because it ends.”
― Marc Hamer, Seed to Dust: Life, Nature, and a Country Garden