#u

As a child, I read because books–violent and not, blasphemous and not, terrifying and not–were the most loving and trustworthy things in my life. I read widely, and loved plenty of the classics so, yes, I recognized the domestic terrors faced by Louisa May Alcott’s March sisters. But I became the kid chased by werewolves, vampires, and evil clowns in Stephen King’s books. I read books about monsters and monstrous things, often written with monstrous language, because they taught me how to battle the real monsters in my life. And now I write books for teenagers because I vividly remember what it felt like to be a teen facing everyday and epic dangers. I don’t write to protect them. It’s far too late for that. I write to give them weapons–in the form of words and ideas-that will help them fight their monsters. I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed. ↗

— Sherman Alexie

#teens #writing #young-adult-literature #life

One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror. ↗

— George W. Bush

#iraq #iraq-war #terrorism #war #terrorism

A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another. ↗

— Mao Tse-tung

#revolution #violence #violence

I'm not unhappy," he said. "Only people with no purpose are unhappy. I've got a purpose. ↗

— Cassandra Clare

#city-of-bones #jace-wayland #purpose #unhappiness #purpose

Books, books, books! I had found the secret of a garret room Piled high with cases in my father’s name; Piled high, packed large,--where, creeping in and out Among the giant fossils of my past, Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs Of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there At this or that box, pulling through the gap, In heats of terror, haste, victorious joy, The first book first. And how I felt it beat Under my pillow, in the morning’s dark, An hour before the sun would let me read! My books! ↗

— Elizabeth Barrett Browning

#literature #reading #terrorism

Angel... I don't think you understand the lengths I would go to if it means keeping you here with me.' -Patch (PG 262) ↗

— Becca Fitzpatrick

#nora-grey #patch-cipriano #understanding

I'm starting to realize that people lack good mirrors. It's so hard for anyone to show us how we look, & so hard for us to show anyone how we feel. ↗

— John Green

#understanding

In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion." [The Minotaur] ↗

— Albert Camus

#retreat #solitude #understanding

Tris: "I was reading." Sandry: "You're always reading. The only way people can ever talk to you is to interrupt." Tris: "Then maybe they shouldn't talk to me. ↗

— Tamora Pierce

#reading #sandry #talk #tris #magic

The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence. ↗

— Adolf Hitler

#employment #essential #first #perpetually #regular