House of Sticks Quotes

“I needed something bad to happen to me to justify my inability to function.”
― Ly Tran, House of Sticks

“No matter what I did in life, it seemed, I couldn't escape myself.”
― Ly Tran, House of Sticks

“So focused was I on this imagined order of events that I couldn't detect the chains that were already keeping me captive. As I grew older I would come to understand that these were the same shackles that had kept my father imprisoned for nearly a decade of misery and despair, and that, from the very beginning, we were all haunted by the ghosts of my father's past.”
― Ly Tran, House of Sticks

“But Mom, what if I'm the light?”
― Ly Tran, House of Sticks

“But Mom, what if ”
― Ly Tran, House of Sticks

“I thought of all the things I wanted to say to her, all the conversations we could have had if only our tongues obeyed the same laws.”
― Ly Tran, House of Sticks

“I began to look at them in a new light and finally understood that they had always wanted what was best for me, had always wished for my success, but lacked the tools and knowledge to help me. They did what they could, escaping poverty and persecution to bring my brothers and me to what they saw as this promised land. They could not have anticipated all the hardships we would face here. Faith was all they had.”
― Ly Tran, House of Sticks

“Writing allowed me to connect the dots and made me feel more grounded within myself. It was as though all the words I could never say suddenly tumbled out of me and onto the page”
― Ly Tran, House of Sticks

“So I joined the robotics team, which was the only team that accepted members regardless of their level of skill. Though I knew nothing about electronics or the construction of robots, the community was welcoming. It was full of charming misfits and geeks, an acceptable and even cool thing to be at the Bronx High School of Science.”
― Ly Tran, House of Sticks