“I knew that just because people on the outside were free and clean, it didn’t mean they were the good ones.”

“Some of us had been running all our lives. We ran because we could and because we could not. We ran for our lives. We still thought they were worth running for.”

“They forgot who she was: Something fantastic we could never explain. Someone better and bolder than every one of us. Someone to paint murals and build bridges for. Someone worth every ounce of our love. Someone powerful, but in the end not powerful enough.”

“The point is, every book we had could save us in a different way -- only, we had to open it. We had to drop our eyes to the page and drink in the words that were there.”

“Maybe, long ago, we used to be good. Maybe all little girls are good in the beginning.”

“Sometimes a perfect memory can be ruined if put to words.”

“The story you choose to tell isn't always the story you believe.”

“I knew that just because people on the outside were free and clean, it didn’t mean they were the good ones.”

“It's not a silly pursuit to read beyond what's handed to you, to seek out new voices and leap over the usual books everyone's already talking about and see what you can find on your own.Making definitive choices about what we spend our time on as readers can make a statement, a difference. We can lift other writers up, give space and attention to more voices than the ones that already have all the space and attention.There is power in what we choose to consume as readers, and there is power in what we choose to amplify, celebrate, and share.”

“Our private tastes in books showed a hint of our secret selves.”