Jasmine

“how do you explain that it is never inspiration that drives you to tell a story, but rather a combination of anger and clarity? How do you say: No, we do not find inspiration here, but we find a country that is as beautiful as it is broken, and we are somehow now part of it, so we are also broken with it, and feel ashamed, confused, and sometimes hopeless, and are trying to figure out how to do something about all that.”
― Valeria Luiselli, Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions

“Numbers and maps tell horror stories, but the stories of deepest horror are perhaps those for which there are no numbers, no maps, no possible accountability, no words ever written or spoken.”
― Valeria Luiselli, Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions

“Ever since I was left somewhat alone, without gods, I have been a ferocious believer in the power of small coincidences.”
― Valeria Luiselli, Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions

“By staying married, we give something to ourselves and to others: hope. Hope that in steadfastly loving someone, we ourselves, for all our faults, will be loved; that the broken world will be made whole. To hitch your rickety wagon to the flickering star of another fallible human being -- what an insane thing to do. What a burden, and what a gift.”
― Ada Calhoun, Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give