Sam Atkis

“Nepantla, Rosamaria says, as she turns, without self-consciousness, to face him. That’s the word for being in a place between two places. She touches her wide, flat nose. I am a crossroads inhabited by whirlwinds. That’s what Anzaldûa wrote, about being inside and outside at the same time. A place you come to, but which is always moving. A nepantlera is someone who moves between selves. Am I the good Mexican girl who goes to Mass and prays to la virgencita? Am I the good assimilated girl who doesn’t have an accent? Am I the sad messed-up girl whose mom left so now she has sex under a porch? Am I a poor girl who cares about poor Mexicans? Am I a feminist who cares about women? Who gets my solidarity? I want the answer to be “everyone.” But people don’t like it when you’re too many things at once.”
― Seth Dickinson, Exordia

“I want to meet you in every place I ever loved. Listen to me. I am your echo. I would rather break the world than lose you.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, This Is How You Lose the Time War

“I have built a you within me, or you have. I wonder what of me there is in you.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, This Is How You Lose the Time War

“You know I’m not saying that. Please, assume my good faith. It’ll save time. The world is at stake.”

“For some of us there are bigger things than the world.”

“Like the mathematical truth of existence?”

“Like the fate of our souls. You keep saying, The world will end if you don’t do what I want. But maybe doing what you want is worse than the end of the world. Maybe that’s why we have religion, did you ever think that? So that we can do the right thing even when there’s no good worldly reason.”
― Seth Dickinson, Exordia