Nothing Burns as Bright as You Quotes

“You hate the cold and I love it,
but I love you more.
So always, even in winter, I pray for heat.”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“I am not a poet.
But I have to write about us.
To prove that we were here.
To prove that it,
all of it
(all of us),
happened.”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“People like us had to be careful.
Or we could cause earthquakes.
Hurricanes.
Tsunamis
of feeling.

It could swallow us whole.”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“A lie:

'Opposites attract.'

The truth?
Magnets attract.
Opposites fit together like (fucked up) puzzle pieces.

And when you're fucked up, there are more important things than attraction.

Like distraction. Like destruction.

Opposites distract.
Opposites destroy.
Opposites decimate.
Opposites detonate.

Opposites are fun as hell,

until they aren't.”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“women were like the sea: Always shifting. Stormy and calm and crashing and quiet. Able to hold and house and carry things with ease. Always gorgeous but in infinite ways. We moved with the moon.”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You

“Lies:

'Love is blind.'
'Time heals all wounds.'

The truth?
Love can see just fine. But it's nearsighted.
Shortsighted.
And distance is the only thing that heals.”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“Parents think they control us with their authority. But really the only reason we listen is because we're desperate for them to love us. And we're terrified that if we do too many bad things, they'll stop.”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“A Lie: You’re not my girlfriend
The truth: we both know exactly who we are to each other

But if you want to get technical, if you counted up the hours i spent thinking of you and the days we spent in your bedroom
If we measured all the ways we touched and the things we’ve said
If we weigh the promise that i will always be here or somewhere loving you
I am definitely and irrevocably way more than that”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“We were here, I scratch into the metal of the bridge.
There was love.
It was messy
but it was real.

I'll hold these truths close to my chest
even as I vow to stay silent, from now on, about it all.

This knowing will have to be enough...”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“And it hits like a lightning bolt, the mistake you made:
you mistook my softness
for weakness.”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“A lie:

'All you need is love.'

The truth:
you need a hell of a lot more
than that.”
-Ashley Woodfolk”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“Less doing, baby.
More being."
-Gran”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“I get it, she says. And I go from feeling invisible to feeling like I fill the whole room, the whole building, the whole sky.”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“I miss you. I miss you, but I’m grateful for the distance. Grateful for my hands and the comfort of art. Grateful for love and the slow but steady passage of time. Grateful to be reminded that there are so many beautiful things in the world other than us. Still, I shimmy under my sheets wishing for the warmth of your body in my bed, wishing the collage of my thoughts wasn’t so often (wasn’t almost always) a messy tapestry of you.”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You

“A Lie: You’re not my girlfriend
The truth: we both know exactly who we are to each other

If you want to get technical..
if you counted up the hours i spent thinking of you and the days we spent in your bedroom
If we measured all the ways we touched and the things we’ve said
If we weigh the promise that I will always be here or somewhere loving you
I am definitely and irrevocably way more than that”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“You're always chasing after her.
But have you ever stopped to ask yourself,
who is fighting for you?"
-Mama”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“I knew the only way to kill the darkness in me
was to flood it with light.”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“I didn't know how to love a God who let Bad Things happen.
I couldn't stop thinking about all the Bad Things long enough to finish my homework.
I couldn't help the fact that Bad Things hit me hard and knocked me hollow.
And I didn't know how to accept feeling it all, all the time.”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“A woman is like a tea bag,
You never know how strong she is until
she gets in hot water."
-Mama”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“What it's like to feel foreign in your own family, your own head, your own body, your own life.”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“You flew through books, reading more in a week than some people did in a year.”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire

“I write one more line,
thinking about how the word stanza means "room" in Italian
and how I'd build you a castle with my words if I could.”
― Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You: A Wild YA Love Story of Two Girls, Queer Hearts, and Fire