Laura

“It's just hard," I said. "Everyone knows everyone. And everyone speaks Farsi. And everyone knows the dances. And I..." ..."Darioush." Sohrab bumped my shoulder again. "No one wants me here." "Everyone wants you here. We have a saying in Farsi. It translates to 'your place was empty'. We say it when we miss somebody." I sniffed. "Your place was empty before. But this is your family. You belong here.”
― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay

“I just wanted everyone to be happy...It's hard, though, when everyone carries around a heart inside them that is so loud and so strong and so easily broken.”
― Dan Gemeinhart, The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

“The beautiful thing about the piano is that you got white keys and you got black keys. And the only way to make the most beautiful, magnificent, and poetic noise is with both sets of keys working in tandem. You can’t just play all white keys, because you won’t maximize what the instrument has to offer. You can’t just play all black keys, because you won’t maximize what the instrument has to offer. But integrate the white and black keys together, and that is when the piano makes a joyful noise.”
― Emmanuel Acho, Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man

“Everything you've done, your past, it's all just a story you tell yourself. Some of it is true, but some of it is lies.”
― Rebecca Roanhorse, Trail of Lightning