Alena

“I’m not sure Black people can be happy in this world. There’s just too much of a backstory of sadness that’s always clawing at their heels. And no matter how hard you try to outrun it, life always comes through with those reminders letting you know that, more than anything, you’re just a part of an exploited people and a denied destiny and all you can do is hate your past and, by proxy, hate yourself”
― Jason Mott, Hell of a Book

“His goodness was found ... not in the moral pilgrimage that reached its destination point, but in the love ethic by which he journeyed life's highways.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., Strenghth to Love

“He leaned companionably closer to Bolt's ear, and the smell of Uncle Charlie's breath suggested that he'd had sardines and beer for dinner at a pub, then smoked cigars and drank whisky for a while, then vomited in a ditch while he was stumbling home in the rain.”
― Dan Chaon, One of Us

“Memory and death are countries that know no geography.”
― Jason Mott, Hell of a Book