Jess

“Contrary to what some folks would have us believe, it is not tragic, even if undesirable, for a person to leave a liberal arts education not having read major works from this canon. Their lives are not ending. And the exciting dimension of knowledge is that we can learn a work without formally studying it. If a student graduates without reading Shakespeare and then reads or studies this work later, it does not delegitimize whatever formal course of study that was completed.”
― bell hooks, Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations

“From microbe to man, life prevailed generation to generation by sneaking past the jealous powers of destruction. Just like the Tzivkever smugglers in World War I, who stuffed their boots and blouses with tobacco, secreted all manner of contraband about their bodies, and stole across borders, breaking laws and bribing officials--so did every bit of protoplasm furtively traffic its way from epoch to epoch. It had been so when the first bacteria appeared in the slime at the ocean's edge and would be so when the sun became a cinder and the last living creature on earth froze to death, or perished in whichever way the final biological drama dictated. Animals had accepted the precariousness of existence and the necessity for flight and stealth; only man sought certainty and instead succeeded in accomplishing his own downfall.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer, Enemies: A Love Story

“I overhear the soldiers whispering. That terrorist looks a bit butch. They laugh. I turn to glare right into their mindless sheep eyes and they stiffen, pretend they don't see me. Miserable fools. What do they know about women? They probably call me butch because of my short hair. They don't know the feminine is the origin of everything. It's ferment, magma, purification, creation. The dawn that will rise when the revolution is complete.”
― Claudia Salazar Jiménez, La sangre de la aurora

“History was a subject that bored me in middle and high school, but I devoured it now. It seemed to hold some of the essential pieces to the identity questions I was asking. How could I know who I was if I didn't have a clue as to where I'd personally and collectively come from? What does it mean to be an American is all caught up in what did it mean to be one. Only some combination of those answers could lead you to what it might mean to be an American.”
― Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run