“How white everything was, from / neighbors to church, to storybooks— / like on cloudy days when / the sky is all glare.” – Han VanderHart, “Partial List of Hauntings”

“Let’s read some poetry!” – Fergie, probably, if AWP had a national anthem portion

“Look, Annie, look—there is no space for anything but dreaming.” – Aimee Bender, “The Rememberer”

“We’ll write a riff, and it’s a sick riff, so it’s guaranteed that the song will be at least interesting to some extent, because you have the sick riff.” – Yvette Young, interviewed

“They could put it on his gravestone: he tried to be of use” – Lydia Millet, ‘Dinosaurs’

“Personally, I am a hedonistic reader; I have never read a book merely because it was ancient. I read books for the aesthetic emotions they offer me…” – Jorge Luis Borges

“This is hardly science, but only a fairy tale, a critic wrote, shortly after the book on the earth’s systemic interconnectedness…” – Angela Woodward, ‘Natural Wonders’

“I fell in love with a robber and he took me on his rounds.” – Aimee Bender, “The Ring”

“We are all wounded by racism…None of us, black or white, wants to feel the pain that racism has caused. But when you feel it, you’re awake.” – Toi Derricotte, ‘The Black Notebooks’

“…joy is the mostly invisible, the underground union between us, you and me…” – Ross Gay, ‘The Book of Delights’