Oliver Shi

“down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.

“He will take no man’s money dishonestly and no man’s insolence without a due and dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him.

“The story is this man’s adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. If there were enough like him, the world would be a very safe place to live in, without becoming too dull to be worth living in.”
― Raymond Chandler

“A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.”
― Peter Jackson, The Art of The Return of the King

“The fake is of far greater value. In its deliberate attempt to be real, it's more real than the real thing.”
― Deishuu Kaiki

“I have struggled to prove myself into existence.”
― Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning