rosechen

“And that’s when I realize that, at the end, we’d all wish for the same thing. Just a little more time.”
― Marie Lu, Wildcard

“No object is in a constant relationship with pleasure, wrote Barthes. For the writer, however, it is the mother tongue. But what if the mother tongue is stunted? What if that tongue is not only the symbol of a void, but is itself a void, what if the tongue is cut out? Can one take pleasure in loss without losing oneself entirely? The Vietnamese I own is the one you gave me, the one whose diction and syntax reach only the second-grade level.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“If only I could rewind, go back in time and ask my mother every question about every tiny thing. How crucial those little fragments are now; how great their absence. I should have saved them up, gathered them like drops of water in a desert. I’d always counted on having an oasis.”
― Emily X.R. Pan, The Astonishing Color of After

“It is always the gentle ones I fear for the most, those willing to bare their hearts, who grieve for others and feel happy for others' happiness.”
― Marie Lu, Skyhunter