Ali

“Did you know people get rich off of sadness? I want to meet the millionaire of American sadness. I want to look him in the eye, shake his hand, and say, 'it's been an honor to serve my country.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“For many years, we didn't realize our parents had accents, that their voices sounded different to unkind American ears. All we heard was home.”
― Roxane Gay

“Embarrassed and almost quickly because sometimes I feel that my mourning is merely a susceptibility to emotion.
But all my life haven’t I been just that: moved?”
― Roland Barthes, Mourning Diary: October 26, 1977–September 15, 1979

“Their presumed, reliable fraudulence is what makes their presence, to the mourners, necessary. Because grief, at its worst, is unreal. And it calls for a surreal response.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous