Ryan Jin > Ryan's Quotes

“The first step to loving someone else is to recognize the evil in ourselves, so we can forgive them.”
― Veronica Roth, Allegiant

“Yeah, sometimes life really sucks," she says. "But you know what I'm holding on for?"

I raise my eyebrows.

She raises hers, too, mimicking me.

"The moments that don't suck," she says. "The trick is to notice them when they come around.”
― Veronica Roth, Allegiant

“Between Strangers:
Stranger, who can measure the distance between us?
Distance is the rumor of a never-before-seen sea.
Distance the width of a layer of dust.
Maybe we need only strike a match
for my world to flicker in your sky,
Visible finally, and eye-to-eye.
Breachable, finally, the border between us.
What if we touched? What then?
Would something in us hum an old familiar song?
Maybe then our feet would wear a path back and forth
between our lives, like houses in neighboring lots.
Would you give me what I lack? Your winter coat,
Your favorite battered pot? Logic warns: unlikely.
History tells me to guard my distance
When I pass you on the street, and I obey.
But—to stumble into you, or you into me—
Wouldn’t it be sweet? In reality,
I keep to myself. You keep to you. We have nothing
To rue. So why does remorse rise almost to my brim,
And also in you?”
― Yi Lei, My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree: Selected Poems