MAYA QUARTZ

“I was beginning to learn the gendered rules for behavior. My parents did not want a steely-eyed warrior for a daughter- they wanted someone obedient and kind. She didn't have to be a quivering sack of hysteria, but she should at least crack at FBI-interrogator levels. I would have to do better. I would try to be softer.”
― Heather Gay, Bad Mormon: A Memoir

“I cannot stress enough how good it is to know the future. If I didn’t come back with my memories intact, I would have probably clung to my father. I would have hated to see myself, unlovable, begging for attention, and finally turning into an ugly woman all over again. Yes, to live a good life… I just need to do nothing. The moment I tried to do something, I would attract people’s hatred and anger.”
― Ramgeul Geul, 폭군님은 착하게 살고 싶어 [Poggunnim'eun Chaghage Salgo Sip'eo]

“I especially liked it when, at the end, they begged for their lives. When they did that—and they all did that eventually—I would pretend to hesitate and see in their eyes the glimmer of a final, desperate hope. I let them have that for an instant. Then, I took it away. That—that extinguishing of their very last hope—I savored more than anything, even more than the extinguishing of their lives.
You see, it was at that moment they could feel the presence of the Devil and would beg God to come and deliver them from him. And it was in that moment that I made them see—that they finally realized—God had been there all along. It was then they understood: the Devil was just God in his night attire.”
― Craig Russell, The Devil Aspect

“There can be no easy reconciliations, only complicated truths, told without shame. The murderers among us would have us believe that history is slippery and unknowable. Insisting otherwise is an act of defense... But the past never goes away. The fear and pain are still there, buried in our brains like mines. It is better to defuse them than to leave them entombed, quietly, waiting for a single misstep. That is why I am telling my story.”
― Chantha Nguon, Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes