Dorrit

“what does 'functioning normally' mean?" I asked.
"Being able to face the past. Having a normal sex life. Not lying awake all night in fits of anxiety."
"Oh. Are most people able to face the past and have normal sex lives?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I think they are," she said. "Anyway, if anyone is, it should be me. Deep down I have a talent for well-being. I can feel it."
I nodded. I thought she had it, too, a talent for well-being.”
― Elif Batuman, The Idiot

“Not being able to deal with your life is humiliating. It makes you feel weak. And if you’re African-American and female, not only are you expected to be resilient enough to just take the hits and keep going, but if you can’t, you’re a Black Bitch with an Attitude. You’re not mentally ill; you’re ghetto.”
― Samantha Irby, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.

“It turns out that the things I hated most as a child are the same things that serve me the most as an adult.”
― Kevin Hart, I Can't Make This Up: Life Lessons

“Whatever appeals to the white working class is ennobled. What appeals to black workers, and all others outside the tribe, is dastardly identitarianism. All politics are identity politics - except the politics of white people, the politics of the blood heirloom.”
― Ta-Nehisi Coates, We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy