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Own Voices Quotes

Browse 32 quotes about Own Voices.

Own Voices Quotes

“Re-examine all you have been told,' Whitman tells us, 'and dismiss whatever insults your own soul.' Full disclosure: what insults my soul is the idea—popular in the culture just now, and presented in widely variant degrees of complexity—that we can and should write only about people who are fundamentally 'like' us: racially, sexually, genetically, nationally, politically, personally. That only an intimate authorial autobiographical connection with a character can be the rightful basis of a fiction. I do not believe that. I could not have written a single one of my books if I did. But I feel no sense of triumph in my apostasy. It might well be that we simply don’t want or need novels like mine anymore, or any of the kinds of fictions that, in order to exist, must fundamentally disagree with the new theory of 'likeness.' It may be that the whole category of what we used to call fiction is becoming lost to us. And if enough people turn from the concept of fiction as it was once understood, then fighting this transformation will be like going to war against the neologism 'impactful' or mourning the loss of the modal verb 'shall.' As it is with language, so it goes with culture: what is not used or wanted dies. What is needed blooms and spreads.”

StoriesLiteratureFictionBooksEmpathyAuthenticityNovelsCultural AppropriationOwn VoicesFascinated To Presume
Author:Zadie Smith
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“When the wicked can't control you, they'll try to control how others see you. But don't engage in their game. Let them live in their delusional narrative, for it's their reality, not yours. Your truth remains unchanged, despite their twisted perceptions. Focus on your path, and let their opinions fall away like dust. In time, their deceit will be exposed, and your integrity will shine.”

Life Quotes And SayingsOwn VoicesGodly RelationshipsShaila Touchton Sayings
Author:Shaila Touchton
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“This book does not represent autism, and neither I nor Cassie represent autistic people. We are simply individual voices in a choir of millions of amazing neurodivergent people, all with our own experiences, or own ways of seeing the world, our own ways of existing. I cannot speak for anyone but myself, and I would not want to try. So, whether you enjoyed this book or not, whether you see yourself represented in this story or not, I urge you to seek out other autistic voices. We are beautiful, we are unique, and we are legion.”

AutismRepresentationAutisticNeurodivergentOwn VoicesOwnvoicesAcknowledgments
Book:Cassandra in Reverse
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“Umi didn’t know that I had cut school to visit the art museum downtown I had cut school to sit in the park on a bench with my sketch pad drawing trees and leaves and sky and birds just to get my skills up just to understand the rules of line and texture and shading and black and white Just so I can break those rules And I didn’t need Ms. Rinaldi to tell me that I wasn’t advanced or I didn’t have history”

Own VoicesPrison Abolition
Book:Punching the Air
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“There’s No Place Like Home,” an oil painting of a woman sprawled out on the floor, half of her painted brown, the other half white, with each half of her body in a differently decorated room. One half was a traditional British home, the other half a Persian one with ornate carpets and gold details glittering on the shelves. Catholic symbols mixed with the elements of nature. Mixed. A dichotomy of two colliding worlds, two pieces of a whole.”

Own Voices
Book:House of Secrets
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“After receiving a diagnosis, the minimal resources that we may be linked to (if we're lucky) are for the benefit of parents, carers and those who are third-party viewers, rather than for neurodivergent people. We're given books that have been created by doctors and psychologists and neurologists who may have studied our brains for a number of years and can spit out information until the cows come home. But, assuming they are neurotypical, they have never and will never experience or understand what it feels like to have our minds. We're given clinical books and clinical videos, and are taught as soon as the new label is attached to us that it's a cold, medical, distant thing, like our brains are no longer ours. And, when we try to rid ourselves of these views and do our own research in an attempt to find things that feel closer to home and less analytical and impersonal, we are led to articles, sob stories, and posts that highlight the disappointment, fear and sorrow that surround all aspects of us, making us feel further invalidated, segregated and alienated.”

AutismNeurodivergenceOwn VoicesAutism Acceptance
Book:Different, Not Less: A Neurodivergent's Guide to Embracing Your True Self and Finding Your Happily Ever After
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