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Xiran Jay Zhao Quotes

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Famous Xiran Jay Zhao Quotes

“We stare at each other, the Iron Demon and the Iron Widow, our arms cuffed, a crown of gun barrels around our heads, trapped among soldiers and fog and battle sounds.”

Strength Battle Solidarity

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“People love to ogle pretty girls, but they love to hate them even more. There's no one the masses are more obsessed with railing at than the women who dare to stray from the docile ideal of wives and mothers.”

Women Girls Patriarchy

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“I think... you've been lied to about what male needs are like. We aren't animals. Yes, our desires get pretty strong, but they're not overpowering. There's no such thing as going mad because of them." A bitter laugh grinds out of me like glass shards. "Tell that to all the girls getting raped as we speak." "That's not a matter of losing control. Every guy who does something like that knows exactly what he's doing. There is always a moment where he consciously decides that he will ruin sometone's life to feel better about his own. Always.”

Desire Control Rape Male

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“Where do you think your family’s misery comes from, Zetian? Don’t you think they’d become different people if you could get them out of this place and give them all the food and security they’ve lacked in their lives?- Xiuying”

Money Family Poverty Security Misery Stability

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“You’re the miracle I’ve been waiting for all this time, going into these battles, praying that something would be different. I can’t bear the thought of losing you.”

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“Some people have learned the unfortunate lesson that causing pain to others alleviates their own. But maybe they truly haven't been taught anything else. Maybe they can change, if given the opportunity. A little compassion goes a long way”

Compassion Kindness Bullying Bully

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“No, he's trying to worm into my mind and shackle me down with morals, so he can feel more comfortable about my existence. Too bad. I am exactly the kind of ice-blooded, rotten-hearted girl he fears I am. And I am fine with that. May he stay unsettled.”

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“Redemption story, they said? There will be no redemption. It is no me who is wrong. It's everyone else.”

Society Redemption Right And Wrong

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“- To nie kwestia utraty kontroli. Każdy mężczyzna, który się tego dopuszcza, dokładnie wie co robi. Zawsze przychodzi taka chwila, kiedy świadomie decyduje, że zrujnuje cudze życie, żeby samemu poczuć się lepiej. Zawsza. - Mówisz z doświadczenia? - Tak. To dlatego zamordowałem braci.”

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“But a mother who has failed me so thoroughly is no mother of mine.”

Mother Family Rejection

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“One last thing," I say over my shoulder, too quiet for my family to hear over the hovercraft churning. "Don't think I've overlooked that you came to my house and almost foiled my plan, despite knowing how important it is to me. If you tip off the army in even the slightest way, I will kill myself when they lock me up, and then I will haunt you.”

Family Suicide Haunting Plan

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“Where does jealousy come from, if not an insecurity that I'll lose you because of him? But that's not how it works, no matter how many people believe it so. You're not something to be kept or taken, and love isn't some scarce resource to battle over. Love can be infinite , as much as your heart can open. I mean, when you think about it, love is fueled mostly by compatibility. Whether two people make each other happy by being close. So it'd be pointless of me to resent Shimin. However compatible you are with him, it doesn't have anything to do with how compatible you are with me.”

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“Since the day I was born, the world had told me I must accept whatever woth men assign me. And maybe, despite my nonstop rebellion, I did. They told me to choose between accepting their doctrine or dying, and I did. I chose death. It was the surrender that made me fearless.”

Death Doctrine Rebellion Worth

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“Any choice they gave you was nothing but an illusion meant to make you bear the weight of the guilt, so they didn't have to.”

Choices Illusion Guilt

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“Female. That label has never done anything for me except dictate what I can or cannot do. No going anywhere without permission. No showing too much skin. No speaking too loudly or unkindly, or at all, if the men are talking. No living my life without being constantly aware of how pleasing I am to the eye. No future except pushing out son after son for a husband”

Feminism Feminist Woman Womans Rights

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“There's not a stratum of the world that doesn't need girls. Maybe we're devalued precisely because we're so valuable. The world is too afraid of not bein able to obtain and control us to respect our true worth.”

Feminism Women Empowerment

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“Wu Zetian," a medley of voices whispers in my head. Not just Shimin's but Big Sister's as well. And Yizhi's. And my mother's. And my grandmother's. And so, so many nameless girls who have suffered under the lies I must expose. "Be their nightmare.”

Feminism Scifi Iron Widow

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“Never appease. No one's ever been respected for appeasing. The only thing you did was let them know there are no consequences to treating you like trash.”

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“It's hilarious. Men want us so badly for our bodies, yet hate us so much for our minds.”

Feminism Badass Women

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“It's hilarious. Men want us so badly for our bodies, hate us so much for our minds.”

Feminism Badass Women Wu Zetian

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“The voices that refused to be silenced, the hands that refused to be bound, the spirits that refused to be broken”

Feminism Feminist Quotes Womens Strength

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“He can’t change anything. He doesn’t own me. Nobody does. They may think they do, but no matter how they scold or threaten or beat me, they can’t really control what goes on in my head, and I think that frustrates them to no end.”

Feminism Control Abuse Survivor

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“You don't think girls are afraid?" "Girls... know how to sacrifice.”

Feminism Womens Rights Womens Empowerment

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“How could they refuse to let girls have their own Chrysalises?' I say through clenched teeth. "It would be such a help to the war!" Yizhi's eyes darken. "What family would let their son enlist if there's a realistic possibility that he'd be killed by a girl.”

Feminism Sexism Womens Empowerment

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“The entitled assholes of the world are sustained by girls who forgive too easily. And there's nothing I'd like to rid the world of more than entitled assholes.”

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“Shimin gulps. "The last thing I needed was another reason for the world to hate me. Though, now..." "Now?" Yizhi's voice goes as airy as the steam wreathing around them. "Now, I see-" Shimin grabs Yizhi's chin. "It's all fucking bullshit." He slams the window shut with his other arm, then leans down and takes Yizhi's lips with his own. My heart stutters, drawing my chest tight. But I'm at peace with this. Instead of a betrayal of any form, it feels like a completion. My killer boy, my sweet boy. The final line in this triangular formation we've been dancing in, making us stronger than ever. This is unconventional, yet another implicit rule we're breaking, but you know what? It works for us. And I think the three of us are done with letting the world tell us what's okay and what isn't.”

Iron Widow Wu Zetian Xiran Jay Zhao Gao Yizhi Li Shimin

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow

“You cling so hard to morality out of a desperation for others to like you. You think they'd stop treating you like an outsider if you were a good boy who did everything they wanted. This is your greatest weakness. If you want any true power over your life, you must stop caring so much about what others think.”

Xiran Jay Zhao Zachary Ying

Book:Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor

Source: Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor

“Perks of refusing to play by the rules: you don't have to choose between the boy who'd torture a man to death with you and the boy who would welcome you back with pastries after.”

Relationships Romantic Polyamory Triad Triad Relationship

Book:Iron Widow

Source: Iron Widow