“But to look back from the stony plain along the road which led one to that place is not the same thing as walking on the road…” – James Baldwin, ‘Go Tell It On The Mountain’

“’I reckon…you is just made up your mind to serve Satan all your days.” “I done made up my mind,” she answered, “to live all while I can…” – James Baldwin, ‘Go Tell It On The Mountain’

“…say it’s too hard to be out there in life…ain’t no excuse…You gotta get out there an do stuff, try to make shit work!” – James Hannaham, ‘Didn’t Nobody Give A Shit What Happened To Carlotta’

“BANG!” – Mike Breen

“Don’t use swear words in public. // Do use swear words to express yourself; / you write so damn much,” – Maya Williams, “Contradictions Of My Mother”

“You always told me it takes time…How much time do you want for your ‘progress’?” – James Baldwin, interviewed

“I used to cry in a genre no one read. What a joke, they said, on fire. There’s no money in it, son, they shouted, smoke from their mouths.” – Ocean Vuong, “Nothing”

“It’s true I’m all talk & a French tuck / but so what. Like the wind, I ride” – Ocean Vuong, “The Last Prom Queen In Antarctica”

“Living on the left bank he listened to boatman songs / rice crops transported upstream migrating birds far and few” – Dong Li, “Live, By Lightning”

“It’s not hard to grow / when you know that you just don’t know” – Damien Rice, “Cannonball”