Noah

“John [the father] kept saying, "You have a penis. That means you’re a boy." One day, Shannon noticed that her son had been in the bathroom an awfully long time and pushed the door open. "He had a pair of my best, sharpest sewing scissors poised, ready to cut. Penis in the scissors. I said, 'What are you doing?' He said, 'This doesn’t belong here. So I’m going to cut it off.' I said, 'You can’t do that.' He said, 'Why not?' I said, 'Because if you ever want to have girl parts, they need that to make them.' I pulled that one right out of my ass. He handed me the scissors and said, 'Okay.”
― Andrew Solomon, Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity

“Words deserted him immediately. He could only speak when he was not asked to.”
― E.M. Forster, Maurice

“But it was the stupidity of passion, which would rather have nothing than a little.”
― E.M. Forster, Maurice

“Maurice was scandalized, horrified. He was shocked to the bottom of his suburban soul....”
― E.M. Forster, Maurice