Read Between the Time

“I think the drink will kill her, and I feel like it's my fault."
"Aye. It probably will kill her," she said, much as if she were only discussing the weather.
"But like I said, it's a slow road, and there's nothing you can do to help her.”
― Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

“Illness has a lot to teach wellness.”
― Matt Haig, Notes on a Nervous Planet

“When I meet kids who suffer, I want to teach them everything I know about the world, which isn’t a lot, and basically amounts to: Go to Harvard. Make hella money. Read contracts before you sign them. Bring two tiny bottles of Kahlúa and a tiny bottle of mouthwash when you have to go with your parents to their biopsy results. I follow my own advice while trying to hold off on the suicidal ideation while trying to be as socially fucking mobile as socially fucking possible and then these kids fucking find me, and what do I do, but invite them into my heart and tell them, babes, go to school, climb the ranks, kill the salutatorian, make it look like an accident, and in your valedictory address, remind your school that cops are pigs, and ICE are Nazis, and you are John at the foot of the cross, Jesus’s most loved apostle, maybe his lover, and you’re in the holy word, escape to my home for some chamomile tea and RuPaul, there will always be room for you, I love you and forever will.”
― Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, The Undocumented Americans

“So many of us begin tortured and end tortured, with only brief bursts of light in between, and I'd rather have average art and survival than miracles that come at the cost of someone's life.”
― Hanif Abdurraqib, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us: Essays