Cozy Reading Times

“To act onstage is to revel in the slipperiness of life, to be yourself and not yourself at the same time. It's the one time you can take two journeys at once.”
― Betty Shamieh, Too Soon

“Certain things are always with us.” She counted on her fingers. “One: scarcity. Limited space and resources. Two: the need to maintain order, which, when things are scarce, is always under threat. Three: surplus. Too many people, not enough stuff: the result is extra people. What are you going to do with all these extra people? If you’re smart, you’ll turn them into a business. That’s the Hold. So there will always be a Hold. Because the Ship is a problem. And the Hold is the answer.”
― Sofia Samatar, The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain

“In the end, I was my mother's daughter. We had never been angels, nor did we aspire to be.”
― Betty Shamieh, Too Soon

“I would never trust that my world wouldn't be turned upside down, that racism wouldn't make it so that every generation in my family would have to start over from the bottom and claw our way back to the top. But I also felt the unshakable confidence that comes from living through that experience. We might have to start over, penniless, but we were of the ilk that knew we could.”
― Betty Shamieh, Too Soon