Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution Quotes

“I realized—what makes a story good—I think it's a trick question, because every single reader will always want something different, right? So to one reader, a book is good, and to another reader, the same book is bad, and in a way, that means every single book in the world is both good and bad, and that cancels each other out, so the answer is nothing makes a story good, in the end. They're just...stories. Kind of like people. There are no good people or bad people, and stories are just an extension of people, so...Yeah.”
― Kacen Callender, Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution

“You know what I think? I think that adults don't want us teens to realize that we're powerful and deep. They don't want us to question the way things have always been. They don't want us to change the world, when this world is the only one they've ever known. I mean, I guess in that sense, I actually kind of feel sorry for adults. In the end, I think they're just afraid.”
― Kacen Callender, Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution

“But we all make mistakes, right? It's just easier to say that we are the good people and other people are the bad people, when in reality, we've all done something harmful, and other people are saying they're the good people, and we're the bad people, and cycle just goes on like that forever and ever.”
― Kacen Callender, Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution

“Not everyone is going to like you. You'll spend your entire life trying to mold yourself into someone else, but then you'll realize you wasted all that time getting others to like someone who isn't even you.”
― Kacen Callender, Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution

“Maybe not. But does that make your voice less important? Does that mean stories or speaking your truth don't have a role in activism, too? I don't know about that. Our society wouldn't be the same without the writers who came before you. Use your voice, Lark. in the way that you can—in the way that you know how. Use your passion to help the world. It doesn't help anyone, does it? To force yourself to fit another person's idea of what it means to make change. I think just existing is enough. Just living and breathing and loving ourselves and each other. That's a way to fight back, too. Don't you think that's true?”
― Kacen Callender, Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution

“And, you know, I'm not even saying that they need to be forgiven, because, yeah, that shit is traumatizing—but I think that they can grow and change and do some good for the people they hurt, too. If we only shame and don't ask for accountability'—yes, accountability, maybe that's what I was missing all along, yes—'then that would also mean they aren't able to change and help to end the harmful cycles this society is trapped in. And they have to. We all have to change, right? And the way we all put so much energy into calling everyone else out—I think that has more to do with us not wanting to look at ourselves, and the mistakes we've made, too.”
― Kacen Callender, Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution

“The goal of accountability is to end harm through learning and growth. What's the goal of shaming? Shaming is more about the person who shames, and making themselves feel like they're better than another person.”
― Kacen Callender, Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution

“That feeling when you read the last line of a book that you love? I can't think of a lonelier feeling in the world. It's like that story's characters became your friends, the best friends you could ever ask for, because you were living in their heads and understood them and they understood you and you shared all these experiences and maybe even fell in love, and you felt like you really blonged somewhere, just for one second, just this once. And then the book ends, and you remember - oh, yeah. None of it was real.”
― Kacen Callender, Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution

“I wonder what's going on in white people's heads. Why don't so many white people care about race? Is it because they're ashamed? They know they benefit from white privilege, but they don't talk about the horrible things their ancestors did. Whenever I read a book with a white main character, written by a white person, they never even consider the ways that their world has been shaped by the racism they're still benefiting from. It's as if race doesn't even exist for them, and when I used to look at Goodreads, white people would complain whenever they see a book that talks about race and other issues in the character's life. There's too much going on, they would write. A lot of white people don't want to know that race exists for them, I guess—and that's the problem.”
― Kacen Callender, Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution

“I hate that term. White lie. White, a word our society has decided means pure, so that even when a white person commits a crime, they're innocent of the harm they've caused. Lies are inherently hurtful. Putting the word white in front of a lie doesn't make it innocent. I don't care about the reason. If you're a liar, Lark, then I can't trust you.”
― Kacen Callender, Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution

“I hate that term. White lie. White, a word our society has decided means pure, so that even when a white person commits a crime, they're innocent of the harm they've caused. Lies are inherently hurtful. Putting the word white in front of a lie doesn't make it innocent. I don't care about the reason.”
― Kacen Callender, Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution