Jess

“All of the people who love me, all of my family who have loved me, have never left me. They gather from their other dimensions, and they make a small family party. They prepare all of the food and they do all of the talking. They are not visiting, they have descended into a place that exists as a perpetual home for anyone in our family ever. We come here to be born, to give birth, to die, and then when we are dead we attend all events. All of my dead relatives proclaim, with their presence here, that we are an unbroken group. And they say, “We have always been loving you and we have never left you.”
― Jenny Slate, Lifeform

“Something bad will happen to prove that you are not lovable, but because you are not lovable you will not be told the truth about the betrayal. The only use that people can comprehend for you is that you are some sort of anchor, some sort ofdead weight made out of a material that gives people cancer, I bet. And you will be lied to in all of the ways that lies can occur: by omission, to your face, because it is just easier to leave things out, 'for your own good, or on purpose because you deserve it by being such a weak drip. And you will see evidence of how much you truly suck, because when you start sniffing around for lies, you will make people angry, and they will say that nothing is wrong and you are making a fine situation into a bad one, and this is such a waste, and you are a disappointment, and why would a person do something like this?”
― Jenny Slate, Lifeform

“Was there anything about her that wasn’t a performance for others’ gratification?”
― Rivers Solomon, The Deep

“I lived a long time, maybe too much, in my own mind. People say I should come out more. Mix. I agree that I close off in places, but if you have been left standing, as I have, while your partner overstays at another appointment, or promises to give you exclusive attention after supper, but is falling asleep just as you have begun to speak—well, it can make you inhospitable if you aren't careful, the last thing I want to be.”
― Toni Morrison, Jazz