Apphia Barton

“I don’t mean that my mother didn’t love me but she was not a domestic person: her life was in her mind. The fundamental skill of all mothers—the management”
― Zadie Smith, Swing Time

“We girls. Afraid of the wrong things, at the wrong times. Afraid of a burned face, when outside, outside waiting for you are fires you cannot imagine. Men, holding matches up to your gasoline eyes. Flames, flames all around you, licking at your just-born breasts, your just-bled body. And infernos. Infernos as wide as the world. Waiting to impoverish you, make you ash, and even the wind, even the wind. Even the wind, my dear, she thought, watching you burn, willing it, passing over you, and through you. Scattering you, because you are a girl, and because you are ash.”
― Shobha Rao, Girls Burn Brighter

“The fundamental skill of all mothers—the management of time—was beyond her. She measured time in pages.”
― Zadie Smith, Swing Time

“A peculiar idea. Once you’re alive in this world, you’re responsible.”
― Zadie Smith, Swing Time