Tom the Teacher

“By the end, Arthur Less is in tears, sobbing in his seat, and he thinks he has been sobbing quietly until the lights come up and the woman seated beside him turns and says, “Honey, I don’t know what happened in your life, but I am so so sorry,” and gives him a lilac-scented embrace. Nothing happened to me, he wants to say to her. Nothing happened to me. I’m just a homosexual at a Broadway show.”
― Andrew Sean Greer, Less

“Words: with them you can do and undo as you please.”
― Elena Ferrante, The Story of a New Name

“Whatever people think of me is none of my business.”
― RuPaul

“When we press the thorn to our chest we know, we understand, and still we do it.”
― Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds