Steph (starrysteph)

“What are humans without stories, Malka? Do you think it won't take stories to shift the tide of war, to build nations up from the ground? Behind every tyrant is a story that justifies their means; behind every brutalized culture are stories that string generations together like emerald beads. Their stories will have meanings, and we will not forget them.”
― Maddie Martinez, The Maiden and Her Monster

“my cancer saved me, because did you know it is actually really so fucking terrifying being invested in living?”
― Walela Nehanda, Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir

“I’ve thought long and hard about how to tell you this story. If I gave you the truth – about me and my sister, the house and the cold and the hunger – you’d know, but you wouldn’t understand … Every detail that didn’t match your own life would become another sandbag against your fear. When you felt safe enough, different enough, exceptional enough, you would forget.”
― Maria Dong, Aviary

“For the first time in my life, I found mirrors for myself. Daphne, and now him. It's bizarre to witness these parts of myself - whatever they are, for if they have names, I don't know them - separated. I tied them together in my mind, as if my inability to grasp the intricacies of other people means I failed to also grasp the meeting of my sex at a basic level; as if one thing caused the other. Headmaster seems to think they're one and the same. Mother and Father do too. To see them divided disproves that.”
― Andrew Joseph White, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth