Leah Hernandez

“And I was -- this is just how I was afraid you'd take it. I knew it, that you'd think this means you were right to be afraid all the time and never feel secure or trust me. I knew it'd be 'See, you're leaving after all when you promised you wouldn't.' I knew it but I'm trying to explain anyway, okay? And I know you probably won't understand this either, but --wait-- just try to listen and maybe absorb this, okay? Ready? Me leaving is not the confirmation of all your fears about me. It is not. It's because of them. Okay? Can you see that? It's your fear I can't take. It's your distrust and fear I've been trying to fight. And I can't anymore. I'm out of gas on it. If I loved you even a little less maybe I could take it. But this is killing me, this constant feeling that I am always scaring you and never making you feel secure. Can you see that?”
― David Foster Wallace, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

“But I mostly thought about how perhaps I owned nothing. Not even my own hands, pressed behind my back.”
― Hanif Abdurraqib, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us

“In the middle of a crazy and drunk life, you have to hang onto the good and sober moments tightly.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“I concluded that the best thing for me and for those around me was to want nothing, to be enthusiastic about nothing, to be as unmotivated as possible, in fact, so that I would never again hurt anyone.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Deadeye Dick