Jo

“Violence isn’t the only means of Transformation, Aerius. There are other Ways Back. A book is an Ax too. ‘For the frozen Sea within us.’ ‘The Pen is mightier than the Sword,’ and so on.”
And in my Mindscape, I saw my Book. Now in Mother’s Hands. How she’d hugged it so close to her Body even after she’d called it Nothing, a Fiction. “My Book a Way Back,” I whispered. “All by itself?” My Voice echoed in the Forest, small and alone.
Allan looked down at me, suddenly quite enchanted. “All by itself," he repeated softly. “They are one of the oldest forms of Transformative Magic. They have the Power to change Everything. Hearts. Bodies. Minds. Souls. Whole fucking Worlds. People burn them for a Reason, you know.”
― Mona Awad, We Love You, Bunny

“We need not worry, our leaders tell us. We are a resilient people. We need only summon that strength now. Will someone please tell them that resilience is not a thing to be trotted out in trying times like a kind of prized pony? As the gifted Haitian American writer Edwidge Danticat puts it, just because people are resilient doesn't mean they can suffer more than others.”
― Julian Aguon, No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies: A Lyric Essay

“That’s why rich adults hate the sort of thing that Louisa paints on the walls of buildings, not because they love walls, but because they hate the fact that there are beautiful things that are free.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Friends

“People say that anxiety is fear for no reason, but Ted’s brain is very helpful when it comes to providing suggestions. Once he read a book that said that people with neuropsychiatric disorders need to “make friends with their brain,” but Ted and Ted’s brain are not friends, they’re classmates, forced to do a group assignment called “life” together. And it’s not going great.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Friends