ruby

“We’re children of the diaspora,” Will said. He had grown up in the US, knew that no matter how much he wanted it to be, China would never be home to him. “All we’ve ever known is loss.”
― Grace D. Li, Portrait of a Thief

“That was the way of the world: if you were a woman, then you had a job to do, and that was to pretend to love everyone else walking all over your body, leaving imprints on your face. You were supposed to crave it, to beg for more.”
― Julia Bartz, The Writing Retreat

“Once, he had thought diaspora was loss, longing, all the empty spaces in him filled with want.... But diaspora was this, too: two cultures that could both be his, history that was waiting to be made.”
― Grace D. Li, Portrait of a Thief

“This was how it always went. Museums overlooked colonialism, conquest, a history of blood, until it was laid in front of them, until violence was met with violence.”
― Grace D. Li, Portrait of a Thief