Alexandra

“Robin wondered then how much of Anthony’s life had been spent carefully translating himself to white people, how much of his genial, affable polish was an artful construction to fit a particular idea of a Black man in white England and to afford himself maximum access within an institution like Babel. And he wondered if there would ever be a day that came when all this was unnecessary, when white people would look at him and Anthony and simply listen, when their words would have worth and value because they were uttered, when they would not have to hide who they were, when they wouldn’t have to go through endless distortions just to be understood.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“Words tell stories. Specifically, the history of those words - how they came into use, and how their meaning morphed into what they mean today - tell us just as much about a people, if not more, than any other kind of historical artefact.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“They could no longer look at the world and not see stories, histories, layered everywhere like centuries’ worth of sediment.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“As pretentious and lofty as it might sound, the point of treating any text as sacred is to learn to treat one another as sacred.”
― Vanessa Zoltan, Praying with Jane Eyre: Reflections on Reading as a Sacred Practice