Jill

“I think that's an issue with queer society. People still have trouble accepting anyone who isn't already in or aspiring to be in a same-sex relationship as a part of the community. Being queer is . . . it's in yourself, it doesn't always have to do with other people.”
― Rebecca K. Reilly, Greta & Valdin

“What was joy, anyway. What was the worth of happiness that left behind a crater thrice the size of its impact. What did people who spoke of joy know of what it meant, to sleep and dream only of the whistle of planes and knocks at the door and on windows and to wake with a hand at one's throat— one's own hand, at one's own throat. What did they know of not speaking for days, of not having known the touch of another, never having known, of want and of not having felt the press of skin to one's own, and what did they know of a house that only ever emptied out. Of animals dying and fathers dying and mothers dying and finding bullet holes in the barks of trees right below hearts carved around names of people who weren't there and the bloody lip of a sibling and what did what did she know— of what could she possibly know of what it—”
― Yael van der Wouden, The Safekeep

“Fire speaks to something chaotic inside us. It has the power to destroy, but if we respect and recognize the ways it keeps us warm and safe, we can coexist with the fire.”
― Angeline Boulley, Sisters in the Wind

“But that is the nature of grammar—it is always tense, like an instrument, aching for release, longing to transform present into past into future, is into was into will.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, The River Has Roots