Julia

“The excuses we make for them are outrageous, but they’re nothing compared with the ones we make for ourselves.”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa

“I had no reason to care about rape then—I was a lucky kid, safe and securely loved—but that story hit me hard. Somehow I sensed what was coming for me even then. Really, though, what girl doesn’t? It looms over you, that threat of violence. They drill the danger into your head until it starts to feel inevitable. You grow up wondering when it’s finally going to happen.”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa

“Does he really believe he'd ever go to prison, a Harvard-educated, well-spoken white man?”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa

“Being forced into helplessness by one other person is terrible," she says, "but being humiliated in front of a crowd...I dont want to say that it's worse, but it is different. It's severely dehumanizing, especially for a child.”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa