Courtney

“I hadn't noticed the tiles in the regular-size house. They were painted to look like flowers. I saw the dollhouse better than I'd seen the real room. That was because it was small and concentrated. Gentleman Jack had told me about distillation, how you take a liquid and boil it so that at the end there's less liquid but it's purer. It's more truly its own self.”
― Franny Billingsley, The Robber Girl

“Your bloodline was marinated in rage. There will be pain in carrying this dark secret. A pain you must endure for others and for yourself. This sickly power you hold without hands will eventually burn until you no longer can hide it. You must learn to control it. Or it will control you. But be not a doormat. You can ease the pain by leaving all that you know. Become so drunk on life and love that it blinds you to the hate threatening to drown you. Chew on grief for breakfast, devour aches for lunch, inhale life’s acid, let it burn the costume he has forced upon you.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“Mostly when I pray, I picture God holding my heart up very gently to his ear, like it’s one of those big, fancy seashells with an ocean sound inside it. I’ve got a thousand tiny oceans inside me. And I think God listens carefully to every crashing wave, all the fears and hopes. Even if he doesn’t answer every single prayer, I think he keeps my heart safe.”
― Natalie Lloyd, Hummingbird

“I wish it were possible to catch a compliment, to hold it in the cage of your hands like a firefly and never let it go. But . . . it isn’t. The high is transient.”
― Rachel Harrison, Cackle