Raymond

“I know now that if we choose to keep any part of what is behind us, we must take all of it, hold each moment up to the light like a photograph.”
― Natasha Trethewey, Bellocq's Ophelia

“To have dominion over oneself, to be the sovereign of the nation of the self, one must be the writer of the story.”
― Natasha Trethewey, The House of Being

“History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do. —JAMES BALDWIN”
― Jon Meacham, The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels

“Writing is a way of creating order out of chaos, of taking charge of one's own story, being the sovereign of the self by pushing back against received knowledge and guarding the sanctity of the dwelling place of the imagination, that place of first permission.”
― Natasha Trethewey, The House of Being