Kumar Shashwat

“The thing is, I don't want my sadness to be othered from me just as I don't want my happiness to be othered. They're both mine. I made them, dammit.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“He who blames others has a long way to go on his journey. He who blames himself is halfway there. He who blames no one has arrived.”
― Ancient China Knowledge, The 36 Stratagems in Ancient China War: 三十六计

“I was once foolish enough to believe knowledge would clarify, but some things so gauzed behind layers of syntax and semantics, behind days and hours, names forgotten, salvaged and shed, that simply knowing the wound exists does nothing to reveal it.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“I'm sorry I keep saying How are you? when I really mean Are you happy?”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous