Elena

“I got something to tell you," said Keisha Blake, disguising her voice with her voice.”
― Zadie Smith, NW

“It can. If you’re willing to do the work.” “What work?” “Not letting the world destroy you. That’s a daily battle.”
― Matthew Quick, Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock

“Although once when we were talking after class, Herr Silverman told me that when someone rises up and holds himself to a higher standard, even when doing so benefits others, average people resent it, mostly because they’re not strong enough to do the same.”
― Matthew Quick, Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock

“I feel like there are fifty ways it's my fault. I fantasized. I took the big pill and the small pill, stuffed myself with substances to make being out in the world with people my own age a little bit easier. To lessen the space between me and everyone else. I was hungry to be seen. But I also know that at no moment did I consent to be handled that way. I never gave him permission to be rough, to stick himself inside me without a barrier between us. I never gave him permission. In my deepest self I know this, and the knowledge of it has kept me from sinking.”
― Lena Dunham, Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned"