Nell

“I knew then, in that small moment, that all my life I would be the kind of woman that inspired weakness in men. It was like my future stretched out in front of me and I could see it, a future of men turning to me for comfort, not passion. Men trusting me more than I wanted to be trusted. Men turning into boys, maybe even babies, in my arms. I would be the kind of woman who loved men into lesser, not finer, selves.”
― Nanci Kincaid, As Hot as It Was You Ought to Thank Me

“We were bred of earth before we were bred of our mothers. Once born, we can live without mother or father, or any other kin, or any friend, or any human love. We cannot live without the earth or apart from it, and something is shrivelled in a man's heart when he turns away from it and concerns himself only with the affairs of men.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek

“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”
― Walt Whitman

“There will be times when it seems that it would be best to just call him and see how he’s doing. Don’t deceive yourself, you don’t care about how he’s doing, you’re just craving him, don’t do it. You’ll only hurt yourself.”
― Osayi Osar-Emokpae, Because You Deserve Love