Maya

“It was the word unfit that scared her, a mother who didn't fit. A mother who wasn't the right kind of mother like all the other mothers. A mother without a ring, who was too young, who let men look at her body for money.”
― Rufi Thorpe, Margo's Got Money Troubles

“Because all around her she could feel the echoey space of no one caring about her or worrying about her or helping her. She might as well have been nursing this baby on an abandoned space station.”
― Rufi Thorpe, Margo's Got Money Troubles

“But when they talked about the opportunities she would be missing, she’d thought they meant a four-year college. She hadn’t understood they meant that every single person she met, every new friend, every love interest, every employer, every landlord, would judge her for having made what they all claimed was the “right” choice.”
― Rufi Thorpe, Margo's Got Money Troubles

“Choose not to look, however, at your own peril. The owner of an old house knows that whatever you are ignoring will never go away. Whatever is lurking will fester whether you choose to look or not. Ignorance is no protection from the consequences of inaction. Whatever you are wishing away will gnaw at you until you gather the courage to face what you would rather not see.”
― Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents