Ashley

“Just be yourself, she said. Which self, I wanted to reply.”
― Chanel Miller, Know My Name: A Memoir

“A text from Tiffany: All it took for any ambiguous or mean or victim-blaming comments to disappear was your voice.”
― Chanel Miller, Know My Name: A Memoir

“But as a rule, online activism is sheer fanaticism: once people convince themselves they’re morally right, they think it’s perfectly acceptable to slit their opponent’s throat.”
― Virginie Despentes, Dear Dickhead

“She put her hands on her hips, the fool, and Ernestine moved between us, and said, very sweetly, “Adrienne? Baby? May I tell you something, lumps? Sweetie? Sweetiepie?” She put one hand very lightly against Adrienne’s cheek. Adrienne quivered but did not move. Ernestine let her hand rest and play for a moment. “Oh, sugar. From the very first day I laid eyes on your fine person, I got hung up on your Adam’s apple. I been dreaming about it. You know what I mean—? When you get hung up on something? You ain’t never really been hung up on anything or anybody, have you? You ain’t never watched your Adam’s apple move, have you? I have. I’m watching it right now. Oh. It’s delicious. I just can’t tell, sweetie, if I want to tear it out with my fingers or my teeth—ooh!—or carve it out, the way you carve a stone from a peach. It is a thing of beauty. Can you dig where I’m coming from, sugar?—But if you touch my sister, I’m going to have to make up my mind pretty quick. So”—she moved away from Adrienne—“touch her. Go on, please. Take these chains from my heart and set me free.”
― James Baldwin, If Beale Street Could Talk