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Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir
Akwaeke Emezi
Top 10 Best Quotes
“What is love if not a shield thrown up around you when you are too injured to throw it up yourself?”
“There is something bright and brilliant in me. It doesn't make me feel special. It makes me terribly alone.”
“I know many people survive, but I also think people glorify resilience a little too much, forgetting that the fragile ones simply die as the world walks on over their bones.”
“They say terrible things are done in darkness, but terrible things are also done in a light too blinding for anyone else to look at directly.”
“People want to be the ones drawing the lines, building the boxes, making the names. Maybe because stories live inside all those structures, and if you're the one controlling the stories, then you're the one in power. So they get really angry when you name yourself, especially if you're the type of thing they were expecting to name.”
“People can do such spectacular things if you forget to tell them it's impossible. I want them to try.”
“I learn that I will disappoint others with my lack of wellness, of capacity, of ability to explain to them the intricacies of what the fuck is happening with my flesh that renders me unable to perform the way I used to. I forgive myself for letting people go, because I am trying to hold on to myself.”
“The spell is clear: face your work. [...] What happens after you make the work is uncertain, but one thing is guaranteed: If you don't make the work, nothing will happen. Discipline is just a series of choices. With the spell, we can understand that each choice is carving out a future, finding our way out of the desert. Trust me, it's glorious on the other side.”
“It wasn't my first mutilation, but it was one of my best.”
“It is a different kind of power to be able to anoint yourself instead of kneeling for someone else to do it.”
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Book Keywords:
transgender, hysterectomy, love, impossible, salpingectomy, naming, resilience, apart, power-of-words, control, brilliance, loneliness