Alice

“The wonder is that you could start life with nothing, end with nothing, and lose so much in between.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

“When you believe niceness disproves the presence of racism, it’s easy to start believing bigotry is rare, and that the label racist should be applied only to mean-spirited, intentional acts of discrimination. The problem with this framework—besides being a gross misunderstanding of how racism operates in systems and structures enabled by nice people—is that it obligates me to be nice in return, rather than truthful. I am expected to come closer to the racists. Be nicer to them. Coddle them.”
― Austin Channing Brown, I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

“Fiction is the great lie that tells the truth about how the world lives!”
― Abraham Verghese, The Covenant of Water

“I have been bent and broken but I hope into better shape.”
― Abraham Verghese, The Covenant of Water