Shanika Nevue

“We both see strangers and react. We don't like to walk by people without nodding. We're broken when people are rude. Were broken when people can't meet us halfway. We can't accept the limits of normal human relations-chilly, clothed, circumscribed. Our hearts pull against their leashes.”
― Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity!

“The trauma specialists disagreed. These kids had been raised in a western mentality, they argued: real men fend for themselves; tears are for weaklings; therapy is a joke. “Frank, you are the key,” one counselor advised him. “You’re an emotional person, you need to show those emotions. If you try to hold your emotions inside, you’re going to set the image for other people.” The boys, in particular, would be watching him, DeAngelis felt. They were already dangerously bottled up. “Frank, they need to know it’s all right to show emotion,” the counselor said. “Give them that permission.”
― Dave Cullen, Columbine

“Please, Pa, can I ask just one more question?”
“May I,” said Ma.
Laura began again. “Pa, please, may I--”
“What is it?” Pa asked. It was not polite for little girls to interrupt, but of course Pa could do it.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie

“In a train...smash. In his arm her last...breath.' He had loved her. But he hated himself more. Such suffering, so much pain. And he thought it made him hateful. As if suffering was shameful, disgusting, as if pain were a crime. Who can judge another man's suffering?”
― Janet Fitch, Paint it Black