Loving Day Quotes

“A man's daughter is his heart. Just with feet, walking out in the world.”
― Mat Johnson, Loving Day

“I have found that, in the African American oral tradition, if the words are enunciated eloquently enough, no one examines the meaning for definitive truth.”
― Mat Johnson, Loving Day

“People aren't social, they're tribal. Race doesn't exist, but tribes are fucking real.”
― Mat Johnson, Loving Day

“The sociopaths, that's the real problem. The whole street demeanor is about pretending to be a sociopath as well, so that the real ones can't find you.”
― Mat Johnson, Loving Day

“Forgiveness comes later in life, after you've created enough disasters of your own.”
― Mat Johnson, Loving Day

“People look at interracial couples through their own, distorting racial lens. It doesn't matter what form they take.”
― Mat Johnson, Loving Day

“I was a boy that age once, and I know that 97.7 percent of their bodies are semen and the 2.8 percent is an incendiary device for spraying it.”
― Mat Johnson, Loving Day

“In the ghetto there is a mansion, and it is my father's house... Its expansive lawn is utterly useless, wild like it smokes its own grass and dreams of being a jungle.”
― Mat Johnson, Loving Day

“You gotta change. With life. Life changes, you got to go with it. Or you get pulled apart.” I”
― Mat Johnson, Loving Day

“Okay, here’s the secret. It’s not really a secret, but I’ll frame it to you as one. The same people who despise you for identifying as mixed? Those are the same people who, when you do identify as black, despise you for not being black enough. And there’s nothing you can actually do to be black enough, for them. Because it’s not really how you act that they despise. It’s you. Your very existence.” She”
― Mat Johnson, Loving Day

“It’s foolish and a desperate plan, but I accept that I am a foolish and desperate individual, so it’s perfect.”
― Mat Johnson, Loving Day

“The fear comes back but I don’t listen to it. I decide the fear itself is nothing of merit, a few little chemicals in my brain, dripping the wrong way. I walk right over and if I must I will walk right through.”
― Mat Johnson, Loving Day

“she loves everyone else here enough that she is willing to let them see all of who she is in this moment.”
― Mat Johnson, Loving Day

“I'm watching you, big boy, my eyes say, but his are closed so it's an optical monologue.”
― Mat Johnson, Loving Day

“There is a rational part of my brain and it says, Don't zap them, Warren. Ask questions first, find out who they are and why they're here, on your doorstep, lurking, banging. Find out their hopes and dreams. Offer them a glass of water. And that part of my brain has control of my left hand, which is holding the doorknob. The right hand fucking zaps the crackhead.”
― Mat Johnson, Loving Day

“Crackheads destroy things. First, their lives, obviously. And then their families. But they also destroy houses. They light fires and they have poor judgment; both things are required if you're going to be a crackhead. They make houses burn down. They're not as thorough as meth heads, who have the benefit of their exploding labs, but crackheads have left a respectable number of ruined buildings in their wake. A crackhead did it is a reasonable cause of destruction on any forensic report. A history of crackhead infestation is a legitimate explanation for loss of property.”
― Mat Johnson, Loving Day