“A crazy place in my mind laughs to keep the world and my heart from breaking in two.”

“Sticks and stones may break your bones but words can break hearts.”

“Besides, it's my God-given right as an American to speak my mind and fill others' ears with my thoughts, my opinions, my innermost feelings, and my repressed childhood memories.”

“Hardly any aspect of my life, from where I had lived to my education to my employment history to my friendships, had been free from the taint of racial inequity, from racism, from whiteness. My racial identity had shaped me from the womb forward. I had not been in control of my own narrative. It wasn’t just race that was a social construct. So was I.”

“One boy, one girl, two hearts beating wildly.”

“There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy”

“He was poor and foolish and people will always have a place in their hearts for the harmless.”