Adam > Adam's Quotes

“Oh, if you’d been there, you know you would have raised hell,” said Zaffre.

Etoine shrugged. “I guess in the moment, I usually do. I just always expect something to stop me. That’s the trouble I’m afraid of—as if God will stop me. But if God wanted us to not raise hell, he would’ve made natural laws against it. You can’t go mistaking a human law for a natural law.”

“You don’t believe in God,” said Zaffre.

“I don’t really believe in laws either,” he said, and took another bite of the candy.”
― Isaac Fellman, Notes from a Regicide

“For the story of their lives in Stephensport, I have relied upon Etoine’s prison memoir. He wrote it when he thought that Zaffre was already dead, and he had nothing ahead but death on the gallows. He had no idea that he would live for decades after that, would outlive her again, would mourn her again.

Autoportrait, Blessé is what he called it: Self-Portrait with a Wound, or Self-Portrait, Injured. Nothing to do with the English “bless” or “blessing,” though you could be forgiven for thinking it, if you imagined my father had any hand for the sliding bow of a multilingual pun, or if you imagined he felt blessed.”
― Isaac Fellman, Notes from a Regicide

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid

“The endless loop of Green's slackened glutes sloshing in her seven-inch baby blue shorts was a revelation—in the renaissance of American volleyball, as a tipping point for trans girls in sports, and the upending of the stereotype of buttless Asian people.”
― Benedict Nguyễn, Hot Girls with Balls

“What if Walt tried to enter the mess and was mauled alive by transphobe trolls? Worse, what if she posted a video of her doing a girly little dance and nobody watched it?”
― Benedict Nguyễn, Hot Girls with Balls

“Being the center of attention wasn't a toxin; it was an overdue therapeutic intervention. A jolt of pressure that brought Six back to life.”
― Benedict Nguyễn, Hot Girls with Balls

“Green said "We need new trans representation" and then gave us a one-woman performance of Trans Victim, Trans Villain, and Trans Whore all in the same week.”
― Benedict Nguyễn, Hot Girls with Balls

“I sighed against her. "I know my fears are not rational," I said with apology, "but feel them nonetheless.

"Rationality," Mossa said, "is a tool; and, like any other, it is fallible, and only of use in some circumstances.”
― Malka Ann Older, The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles

“Embracing grief granted me a new clarity and resignation about my future: Never again would I live a lite that others chose for me. Never again would I abandon myself. My future would reflect my true path and purpose, not anyone else's.”
― Alyson Stoner, Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything

“It took great effort and, ironically, faith to allow my paradigm to transform, like I was tearing down a house while still living in it, uncertain if I'd find a solid structure again. But the evidence was encouraging: every day, I had more love to give people and the planet.”
― Alyson Stoner, Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything

“Everyone says nostalgia is about suffering, because of the Greek 'algos' meaning pain, but Jamie prefers to think of the algia in ‘nostalgia’ as coming from algae. The longing for lost people and places grows at the bottom of your soul, brackish and salty, clogging everything with its endless fronds. Nostalgic people can never want anything cleanly.”
― Charlie Jane Anders, Lessons in Magic and Disaster

“Darling, I really have to tell you”, Sir Hardy says, launching straight in as we sit down at the most discreet table in Claridge’s. “You really must stop doing those fucking godawful windows.”

Only one response comes to mind. “I’ll think about it, Sir Hardy — when you stop doing those fucking godawful dresses.”

There's silence. And then he laughs.”
― Mary Portas, I Shop, Therefore I Am: The '90s, Harvey Nicks, and Me

“We’ve all heard that cliché that we should follow our passions. But I prefer the author and thinker Elizabeth Gilbert's philosophy that it's our curiosity we should listen to. She argues that so many people suppress their curiosity with reason and logic, but that if you really tune into that curiosity, that's when things start to feel right. When life gets interesting — and carries on being creative.”
― Mary Portas, I Shop, Therefore I Am: The '90s, Harvey Nicks, and Me

“A person can’t really know who they are unless they know what they want. That’s a big part of why I do this thing: I can read the ransom notes left by my own heart.”
― Charlie Jane Anders, Lessons in Magic and Disaster