Leslie

“That educated didn’t mean smart. He had a point. Nothing in my education or knowledge of the future had helped me to escape. Yet in a few years an illiterate runaway named Harriet Tubman would make nineteen trips into this country and lead three hundred fugitives to freedom.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Kindred

“She means it doesn't come off, Dana... The black. She means the devil with people who say you're anything but what you are.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Kindred

“What's everyone talking about?"
"The end of The Iliad."
"That's the best part," Marx said.
"Why is it the best part?" Sadie asked.
"Because it's perfect," Marx said. "'Tamer of horses' is an honest profession. The lines mean that one doesn't have to be a god or a king for your life to have meaning.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“He moved uncomfortably. "Reading's too much trouble. Mr. Jennings said I was too stupid to learn anyway."
"Who's Mr. Jennings?"
"He's the schoolmaster."
"Is he?" I shook my head in disgust. "He shouldn't be. Listen, do you think you're stupid?"
"No." A small hesitant no. "But I read as good as Daddy does already. Why should I have to do more than that?"
"You don't have to. You can stay just the way you are. Of course, that would give Mr. Jennings the satisfaction of thinking he was right about you.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Kindred