Lisa O

“The child gives, because the body can, and the mind of the violator cannot.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

“I was the Goddess,
the hunter of pearls.
The drinker of liquid diamonds.
The flower girl that threw out golden stars.
The prescriber of poems for the soul.
The dreamer who sees butterflies with wings of steel.

Daughters raised by the voices in their heads
Will now blame it on the green sun.”
― Ayanda Ngema, They Raped Me: So, Now What?

“The moment where you consider giving in, or do give in, that's the moment you torture yourself about for the rest of your life. That's the moment where you think it happened to you because you are a bad and weak person, who wanted it really. When in fact, it's about survival. And whichever choice you make, it wasn't really a choice at all.”
― Mhairi McFarlane, Don't You Forget About Me

“It was less the fact of Yoshiko's defilement than the defilement of her trust in people which became so persistent a source of grief as almost to render my life insupportable. [...] Yoshiko's immaculate trustfulness seemed clean an pure, like a waterfall among green leaves. One night sufficed to turn the waters of this pure cascade yellow and muddy. Yoshiko began from that night to fret over my every smile or frown.”
― Osamu Dazai, No Longer Human