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Rivers Solomon Quotes

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Famous Rivers Solomon Quotes

“There was no church, no philosophy, no school of thought, no nothing that could be trusted in full. To believe too much in anything was to sacrifice your faculties. The only way forward was to embrace the tussle of it all. Born with a seething righteousness, Vern looked down on anyone les willing or able to put up a fight than she was.”

Trust Complexity Righteousness Skepticism Trusting

Book:Sorrowland

Source: Sorrowland

“Vern didn't know what she wanted. She was a girl made of aches and she flung her body at the world in the hopes that something, anything, might soothe the tendernesses.”

World Life Passion Tenderness Aching

Book:Sorrowland

Source: Sorrowland

“...sadness is the hardest thing to breed out of a bloodline.”

Sadness Trauma Cycles Rebirth Breeding

Book:An Unkindness of Ghosts

Source: An Unkindness of Ghosts

“In the woods, it had been so easy to assert herself fearlessly, but it was impossible to be a free woman among people. Society demanded a certain level of lying about oneself.”

Lying Freedom Society Deception Self Deception Fearlessness

Book:Sorrowland

Source: Sorrowland

“I hope that even as Sorrrowland delves into the pain these colonial states have wrought, one might see the joy, triumph, and humor of those who resist, resist, resist. That said, there is no mincing words about some of the darker themes in this book. Note discussion and instances of racism, misogyny, self-harm, suicidality, and homophobia, inclusion of animal death and explicit violence, and references to sexual violence that have taken place off the page. I hope you find in this book whatever it is you need right this moment.”

Joy Content Warnings

Book:Sorrowland

Source: Sorrowland

“No. Not when I think about it. Not at all," Vern said, thrust into despair at the depth of human gullibility. Perhaps it was a necessity of the species. To be bent toward believing. For in the wild, a child who did not take to the heart the words of its caregivers would easily perish.”

Humanity Human Beings Survival Safety Gullibility Necessity

Book:Sorrowland

Source: Sorrowland

“It only ever took a moment for life to break apart at the seams.”

Life Change Trauma

Book:Sorrowland

Source: Sorrowland

“Forgetting was not the same as healing.”

Healing Slavery Forgetting Mermaid Mermaids The Deep Rivers Solomon

Book:The Deep

Source: The Deep

“Listen, then repeat. Listen, then repeat. That was all it took to pretend well. What was a person’s self but carefully articulated mimicry?”

Self Personality Repetition Modeling Mimicry Impersonation

Book:An Unkindness of Ghosts

Source: An Unkindness of Ghosts

“What is belonging?” we ask. She says, “Where loneliness ends.”

Loneliness Belonging

Book:The Deep

Source: The Deep

“Vern thought of how much less lonely her childhood might have been had she been able to read.”

Reading Childhood Loneliness

Book:Sorrowland

Source: Sorrowland

“It was easy to make someone into a hero when they were gone, to ascribe to them infinite potential.”

Death Loss Potential Heroes

Book:Sorrowland

Source: Sorrowland

“Then don't die." Yetu said... "Stay with me and we will make a new thing. What's behind us, it is done.”

Forgiveness Moving On Complete

Book:The Deep

Source: The Deep

“What a small thing she had asked for, to be left alone, to be allowed the solace of her own atoms. The only cocks she wanted inside her were the ones she requested, the only hands on her body the ones she begged to have touching her, the only knife in her gut the one she lodged there herself.”

Freedom Self Autonomy

Book:An Unkindness of Ghosts

Source: An Unkindness of Ghosts

“Loving, worshipping, and bowing down to folks who harmed you was written into the genes of all animal creatures. To be alive meant to lust after connection, and better to have one with the enemy than with no one at all. A baby's fingers and mouth grasp on instinct.”

Loss Domestic Violence

Book:Sorrowland

Source: Sorrowland

“Maybe my mother is God, and that's why nothing I do pleases her. Maybe my mother is God, and that's why even though she's never once saved me, I keep praying that this time she will.”

Motherhood Mothers Generational Trauma

Book:Model Home

Source: Model Home

“To everyone I will ever be, and ever was.”

Dedications

Author:Rivers Solomon

“Dear Sirs," Flick began before loudly inhaling, "On account of there being no heat down here in account of the being no electricity on account of the brand-new energy rations so thoughtfully and nobly and honorably imposed on the steerage decks by Sovereign Nicolaeus on account of the blackouts - Aster fell prey to a brief fit of hypothermia-induced delirium de spoke against you in her maddery. She's healed up now so you don't have to worry about it happening again.”

Philosophy Slavery Sci Fi Black Lives Matter Puerto Rico Interstellar Travel Afropessimism Generational Spaceship Flint Michigan Scavenger Cosmologies

Book:An Unkindness of Ghosts

Source: An Unkindness of Ghosts

“The beginning mosquito bites of breasts.”

Gender Dysphoria Ed

Book:Model Home

Source: Model Home

“Vern stowed away the titles of books like morsels she might snack on later. She liked being reminded of the incomprehensibleness of the world. There was more to life than Cainland, more to earth than its collected sorrows. There was wonder and awe and the allure of nothingness. No one had figured everything out, but there were people who'd made their home in the searching. If they could dwell there, so could Vern.”

Knowledge Information Books Seeking Titles Incomprehensibility

Book:Sorrowland

Source: Sorrowland

“People were so often mean that when they weren’t, there was a tendency to bestow sainthood upon them. Aster did not reward common decency with her affection.”

Fantasy Science Fiction Lgbt Own Voices

Book:An Unkindness of Ghosts

Source: An Unkindness of Ghosts

“You're a smart one. You know as good as me and as Flick that there is no Promised Land. Matilda's an orphan, a daughter of dead gods. But Ancestors is real and their spirits are at work. Baby sun giving out is how they making a fuss.”

Capitalism Slavery Science Fiction Scifi Spaceship Afropessimism

Book:An Unkindness of Ghosts

Source: An Unkindness of Ghosts

“Conform or die. That was his motto. I am oddly doing bits of both, each half-assedly.”

Life Death Conforming Non Conforming

Book:An Unkindness of Ghosts

Source: An Unkindness of Ghosts

“Every day, everyone is a hundred different people: who they are when they are alone and feeling fuckable, who they are when they are alone and feeling unfuckable, who they are when they are grief wrecked, when they are joy smacked.”

Self Realization Quotes Hot Takes Relatable Af

Book:Model Home

Source: Model Home

“She's more delicate than you'd think," I say. She's glass. I'm glass. We're all glass, busted up, unrecognizable from our original selves. We walk around in fragments. It's a circus act.”

Brokenness Delicacy Fragmentation Broken Lives

Book:An Unkindness of Ghosts

Source: An Unkindness of Ghosts

“Dear Sirs," Flick began before loudly inhaling, "On account of there being no heat down here in account of the being nö electricity on account of the brand-new energy rations so thoughtfully and nobly and honorably imposed on the steerage decks by Sovereign Nicolaeus on account of the blackouts - Aster fell prey to a brief fit of hypothermia-induced delirium de spoke against you in her maddery. She's healed up now so you don't have to worry about it happening again.”

Slavery Science Fiction Black Lives Matter Puerto Rico Afropessimism Generational Spaceship An Unkindness Of Ghosts

Author:Rivers Solomon

“Vern didn't believe Mam's adage about picking battles. Everything that could be contested needed contesting. She could wear opponents down by the sheer quantity of escalations.”

Arguing Escalating Contesting Picking Battles

Book:Sorrowland

Source: Sorrowland

“I have done at least one good thing: become a person my father would hate.”

Hate Father

Book:An Unkindness of Ghosts

Source: An Unkindness of Ghosts

“...she was letting the crisis invigorate her. She was like Vern in that way, more at home in conflict than in peace. Tragedy sharpened you. It was the quickest way to turn yourself into an edge.”

Peace Conflict Tragedy Crisis Sharpness

Book:Sorrowland

Source: Sorrowland

About the Author

Known for: Author
Quotes: 29

Books & Sources

SorrowlandRelated source material

An Unkindness of GhostsRelated source material

Model HomeRelated source material

The DeepRelated source material