The Mayor of Maxwell Street

by Avery Cunningham

Instead of pretending to make the most out of life, he just did. No matter how inane it all turned out to be.

“I have found in my limited experience that the best defense against hate is complete, unmitigated, iridescent happiness.”

Real wealth means feeling secure enough to be yourself.

“Shame doesn’t come from how others feel about you, but from how you feel about yourself,”

I don’t want to look like them, or act like them, or be them. But I want their options.”

“Even with all that you Americans did to break from nobility, you have the most fervent obsession with it.”

This is what I think when people were obsessed with the royal family and weddings

“Talent and capability are not the same thing.

“Your father has written whole diatribes about romancing outside of our race. The Lord alone knows what he’d have to say about romancing within your own sex.”

Sequoia flexed her shoulders like a bird fluffing its wings. “Tell me, are you always the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral, or do you pick your opportunities to upstage with some intentionality?”