Robin

“Ik las steeds meer en meer. Mijn nieuwe vrienden waren grappig, slim en 24 uur per dag beschikbaar. In een hoge muur lagen ze rondom mijn bed opgestapeld. Mijn voorkeur ging uit naar boeken van vrouwen. Verdrietige, sterke vrouwen. Ik wilde zijn zoals zij, vrouwen die met iedereen omgingen, maar helemaal niemand nodig hadden, en ik was precies het tegenovergestelde: ik ging met helemaal niemand om, maar had iedereen nodig.”
― Lieke Marsman, Het tegenovergestelde van een mens

“Children of Blood and Bone was written during a time where I kept turning on the news and seeing stories of unarmed black men, women, and children being shot by the police. I felt afraid and angry and helpless, but this book was the one thing that made me feel like I could do something about it. I told myself that if just one person could read it and have their hearts or minds changed, then I would've done something meaningful against a problem that often feels so much bigger than myself.”
― Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone

“It was culture as class performance, literature fetishised for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterwards feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about.”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People

“But what we know now is that when we deny our emotion, it owns us. When we own our emotion, we can rebuild and find our way through the pain.”
― Brené Brown, Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone