Nessa McCasey

“Nabokov once answered a question he must have been tired of being asked: "My private tragedy, which cannot, indeed should not, be anybody's concern, is that I had to abandon my natural language." That something is called a tragedy, however, means it is no longer personal. One weeps out of private pain, but only when the audience swarms in to claim understanding and empathy do they call it tragedy. One's grief belongs to oneself; one's tragedy, to others.”
― Yiyun Li, Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life

“Once in a while I get an email from someone I have met briefly. "You may not remember me," these emails often begin, the hope to be remembered expressed by the acceptance of having already been forgotten.”
― Yiyun Li, Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life

“Somewhere in my brain
each laugh, tear and lullaby
becomes memory.”
― Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming

“But whose problem is it when you make people talk about you?"

"Theirs.”
― Yiyun Li