Dalena Tran

“I was seen—I who had seldom been seen by anyone. I who was taught, by you, to be invisible in order to be safe.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“Sometimes you are erased before you are given the choice of stating who you are.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“I was once foolish enough to believe knowledge would clarify, but some things are so gauzed behind layers of syntax and semantics, behind days and hours, names forgotten, salvaged and shed, that simply knowing the wound exists does nothing to reveal it.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“Too much joy, I swear, is lost in our desparation to keep it.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous