Barbara

“It puzzled him that she did not mourn all the things she could have been. Was it a quality inherent in women, or did they just learn to shield their personal regrets, to suspend their lives, subsume themselves in child care?”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah

“You’ll find that most people here are more adept at appearing intelligent than actually being so. They’re mostly dolts.”
― Francesca Serritella, Ghosts of Harvard

“Surviving is some kind of sin, like floating up off the dunking stool like a witch. You have to be permanently écorchée, heart-on-sleeve, offering up organs and body parts like a medieval female saint.”
― Roxane Gay, Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture

“We believe the one who has power. He is the one who gets to write the story. So when you study history, you must ask yourself, Whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth? Once you have figured that out, you must find that story too. From there you get a clearer, yet still imperfect, picture.”
― Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing