Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry Quotes

“There are enough closed doors and glass ceilings in the world. My comfort zone shouldn’t be one of them.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“I wasted so much time living in fear that I thought I was comfortable, but I was writing in a cage that I didn't know existed, making lists of all my worries with no intent to do anything about them.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“I feel like you see parts of me that I never knew existed.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“My smile widens. It grows and grows, like a plant that you water every day, like a scar that heals from patience, like the time you take to make sure you feel okay. So big and so bright.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“Cowards will do anything to feel safe, to feel in control. I used to be a coward, too, but the first brave thing I ever did was to stop being your friend.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“Listen to me, li’l girl.” She raises my chin to look in her eyes. “Home is not a place. Home is in here.” She pats her hand over her heart. She says, “Don’t you fear, I’m right here.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“I think to myself, If I can still move, what I’m gon’ be still for? Maybe because I’m too scared to move. Because if I move, people might see me. Because staying still is easier.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“She’s right. I am a warrior. I faced my to-do list. I fought for my freedom. I stopped allowing Destany and Gia to abuse me. I finally told my parents about Columbia. And now I’m here. I’m back at the place where I first found myself, finding more pieces of who I am. I dive in and let the cold swallow me up.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“I'm so done with letting pain take the wheel. Now it's time to let love drive.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“She's not my type, like, at all."
"What is your type?"
"You." He lets that word stir me up. Then he says, "Obviously.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“If you say that you’re not the type of person to feel comfortable in this situation, you’re telling yourself how to feel the next time.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“..."My parents never warned me about the fact that the way I talk adn the way I act might lead people to call me white."
"Yeah, I get that," Carter says. "My mom taught me about stereotypes, but she never taught me about the dangers of being the exception to stereotypes."
"Being the exception to Black stereotypes automatically means that you're not as Black.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“But we all know that none of our homes are perfect. And there's an understanding between us.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“I don’t know that. Fear is dangerous. Fear kills Black men.” “You think my dad would kill you?” I ask, meeting his gaze. “If your dad had a gun on him that day, I think I might be dead right now.” It hurts that he would fear for his life at my house. That a boy with skin as dark as mine doesn’t feel safe around my father.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“I'm scared," I whisper.
"Just do it."
And without giving it a second thought, I press my lips against his.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“...Black people fill every table, either eating fried chicken and seasoned fries or waiting for their order to be ready. When the bell on the door chimes, fifty percent of their eyes fall on us. My skin crawls. I'm not used to being surrounded by people with my skin color. It makes me feel like they can see how other I am. But they can't, right? I could blend in if I tried. I could embrace the country in my accent. I could say ain't and y'all and the N-word and they wouldn't know a thing.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“I hold threats in my eyes. Today is not the day to try me.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“Because I realized today that that’s what I did to you. I forced you to get naked before you were ready. And I’m disgusted at myself for doing that to you.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“I find it interesting that two Black students were bullied on school grounds, and you don’t seem to think anything can be done.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“That’s not the worst part. After they realized I was there, Destany, my best friend, said to them, ‘Don’t worry about Quinn. She’s practically white anyway.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“I guess you’re smarter than Hilary. But I bet you’re just as spoiled as her. All you gotta do to get your way is cry ‘Daddy.’” “Excuse me?” I say, taken aback. “I am not spoiled.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“For some reason I thought he’d see me, really see me, considering we have the same dark complexion, but no. He looked at me just as apathetically as he looked at everyone else.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“Kissing Carter feels like I'm right where I need to be. Like everything happened just so that I could end up here, free of lies and fear and guilt, with friends who understand and respect me, and a boy who isn't perfect, but who's patient and whose light shines all over my darkness. Like finally.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“Kissing Carter feels like finally.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“He doesn’t get it. None of that matters. My dad can be proud that he’s the first Black chief surgeon, but that doesn’t mean he’s proud to be Black.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“This undecided mess is just a luxury only rich white boys can afford. You are not that. You have to be better than that if you want to compete”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“There are enough closed doors and glass ceilings in the world. My comfort zone shouldn't be one of them”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“Quinn.” "This time he says my name like it’s part of his foundation.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“and a boy who isn’t perfect, but who’s patient and whose light shines over all my darkness. Like finally.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

“You made a home in my head, and no matter how many evictions I send, you won’t leave.”
― Joya Goffney, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry