“Transformation that is neither fiercely turbulent nor inordinately frightening is not transformation.”
“Take care of your brother, Lydia, and take care of yourself; be at all times guarded. And never forget that this country despises above all else this thing they call people of color, sees them not as people at all but as harbingers of a future it can’t control. I remember liking that moniker: of color. What a thing to be in a country so black and white.”
Source: A People's Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers
“The world men dream of," replied Ghazali, "is the world they try to make.”
Source: Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
“And by this time the Chinese box was peeling crazily, and as each layer fell away a new voice told a new tale, none of the tales finished because the box inevitably found a new story inside each unfinished one, until it seemed that digression was the true principle of the universe, that the only real subject was the way the subject kept changing, and how could anyone live in a crazy situation in which nothing remained the same for five minutes and no narrative was ever driven through to its conclusion, there could be no meaning in such an environment, only absurdity, the unmeaningness that was the only sort of meaning anyone could hold on to.”
Source: Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
“We are aware that conflict was for a long time the defining narrative of our species, but we have shown that the narrative can be changed. The differences between us, of race, place, tongue, and custom, these differences no longer divide us. They interest and engage us. We are one.”
Source: Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
“Raging against it, or despairing, would not change anything. The past does not imprison us. We may offer ourselves up as its captives, but equally, we can choose to open the cell door and walk free. Even if it's locked, the key is nearby, because we keep it with us always. It's just a matter of finding the right pocket.”
Source: The Land of Lost Things
“Life's impermanence
teaches us that
change is the only constant;
urging us to embrace
each fleeting moment.
With appreciation
and acceptance.”
“He'd believed it. She couldn't believe that he believed it. Sometimes, she hated him for that.”
Source: The Winner's Kiss
“I praise the day I reach the end of my rope. That is the day true change can take place.”
“It was not really a dancing song but, rather, the kind of music that made you want to nestle into the arms of someone wonderful and stay there forever.
Through the music's swells, they swayed, and they knew, and they held each other, and they knew, and they melted, and they knew, and they knew, and they knew. Everything would be different and difficult soon.”
Source: Shark Heart