Hadeel Elbitar

“I always feared you would become like your true mother,” Rawain said. “I stayed vigilant for what you might have inherited from Hanim. In my worst nightmares, I never thought you would take after Isra. As weak and—” “Weak is not a mother who throws herself between a boy with none of her blood and the wrath of the man who made him.” Arin wiped the blood dripping onto his lashes. “Weak is a ruler who holds a match to the world and then blames it for burning.”
― Sara Hashem, The Jasad Crown

“Destigmatizing male vulnerability is the first step toward rebuilding the absolute ruin that straight men have left the world in.”
― Tia Williams, Seven Days in June

“I stayed alive for you, and you. But you killed me anyway.”
― Tia Williams, Seven Days in June

“Eventually, we all make it home, and we each make an individual path by any means.”
― Joy Harjo, Catching the Light