Max

“She told me I had something in me I wasn't gonna be able to get out this time around. She told me I could handle it like a man. Die with it. But that I could also share it with my family. I could give it away over time. Even to strangers. It was some old dark leftover thing that stayed with our family. Some people get diseases passed down in their genes. Some people get red hair, green eyes. We got this old thing that hurts real fuckin bad, makes you mean. That's what you got. That's what your grandpa had in him. Be a man, she told me. Keep it to yourself.”
― Tommy Orange, There There

“There is a Quichua riddle: El que me nombra, me rompe. Whatever names me, breaks me. The solution, your course, is "silence." But the truth is, anyone who knows your name can break you in two.”
― Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House

“We got bad blood in us,' Sixto said. 'Some of these wounds get passed down. Same with what we owe. We should be brown. All that white you see that you got on your skin? We gotta pay for what we done to our own people.' Sixto's eyes were closed, his head bent down a little.”
― Tommy Orange, There There

“You wanted someone to be obsessed with you. How could you accomplish that?”
― Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House