— Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

“You have no idea what I'm going through right now.”

“Then tell me. That's how this works. You talk to me about it so that I can take your hand and fucking walk through this shit with you. That is what I signed up for, OK? But I cannot do that if you won't let me in.”

— Short Term 12 (2013)

“Empathy isn’t just remembering to say that must really be hard—it’s figuring out how to bring difficulty into the light so it can be seen at all. Empathy isn’t just listening, it’s asking the questions whose answers need to be listened to. Empathy requires inquiry as much as imagination. Empathy requires knowing you know nothing. Empathy means acknowledging a horizon of context that extends perpetually beyond what you can see.”

— The Empathy Exams: Essays by Leslie Jamison

“I think too much. I think ahead. I think behind. I think sideways. I think it all. If it exists, I’ve fucking thought of it.”

— Winona Ryder

“Then the day when the sadness comes. Then we ask, “Will the sadness which makes me cry, will the sadness that makes me cry my heart out, will it ever end?” The answer, of course, is yes. One day, the sadness will end. One day, the sadness will end.”

— Log Lady Introductions, Twin Peaks

— Atlantics (dir. Mati Diop / 2019)

“Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn't know before you learned it.”

— Maya Angelou.

— David Shrigley

“I can be anything I want / Without my legs or my hair / Without my genes or my blood / With no name and no type of story / Where do I live? Tell me, where do I exist?”

— IMMATERIAL, Sophie

“A body is not a prison; it does not close off possibility. It is not a story completed at birth. A body is a prologue, and its story can be written at will.”

— Glitter Up the Dark, Sasha Geffen

“The only time for worrying is when you've got no more options.”

— Resonance