“Lena is sure that other people don't have many selves. She is terrified that she doesn't have a core self, an essential Lena. She feels that she used to but that she lost it along the way, that at some point it became buried, suffocated, and died, because when she looks beneath the chattering of the selves, nothing is there. Maybe the fractured feeling is taking hold because something is dead inside her, or missing.”
― Haley Tanner, quote from Vaclav and Lena
“Lena's real mom, Emily, knew that this was not the truth, but she also knew that Vaclav was not lying.
Vaclav knew that he was telling the truth.
Lena knew that it was a lie, but she loved it and believed it, like a fairy tale, like a song, like a bedtime story, like a magic trick.
She loved Vaclav until it became the truth and so it was.”
― Haley Tanner, quote from Vaclav and Lena
“Maybe this is how it always is. Maybe someone always wants more. Maybe everyone has a time when they realise that they've been accidentally lying when they say I love you, I miss you, you're pretty, you're the prettiest one, I never want you to leave. Maybe this time ends and it all becomes true again, as true as you ever thought it was. Maybe this time does not end. If this time ends, it would be a smart decision to wait it out. If it does not end, then perhaps you should not wait, and you should find another person to whom you can say these things without lying. But perhaps it always happens, no matter which girl or boy you are trying to love, in which case you might as well stay where you are because you would repeat the same process with anyone else.”
― Haley Tanner, quote from Vaclav and Lena
“. . . and Vaclav's special new shoes with the lights on the heels and the Velcro everywhere, because in America no one, not even small children, has time to tie his own shoes, and everything must have flashing lights.”
― Haley Tanner, quote from Vaclav and Lena
“Vaclav has said goodnight to Lena every night since the night she went away. Out loud. In a whisper. [...] He filled the words with all his love and care and worry for Lena and launched them out to her, and like homing pigeons, he trusted them to find her.”
― Haley Tanner, quote from Vaclav and Lena
“[Vaclav] thinks sometimes you know that it is a very long road to become a famous magician, and sometimes you have to spend your last dollar on buying a soda so that you have something to be grateful for that day, even if it lasts just one small piece of time.”
― Haley Tanner, quote from Vaclav and Lena
“Lena sapeva che era una bugia, ma le piaceva tanto e ci credette, come se fosse stata una favola, una canzone, una storia della buona notte, un trucco di magia. Amò Vaclav finché diventò verità, e verità fu.”
― Haley Tanner, quote from Vaclav and Lena
“Decide di dare una risposta falsa, perché lo imbarazza dire che cosa salverebbe davvero da un incendio. La cosa che davvero salverebbe in caso d'incendio è Lena.”
― Haley Tanner, quote from Vaclav and Lena
“She is not ok. She feels something, and it is bad. She feels as if she has unzipped herself from her belly button to her throat and found nothing inside. The feeling is like reaching for an orange and finding it hollow, rotted out, giving sickly beneath your fingers.”
― Haley Tanner, quote from Vaclav and Lena
“Lei, in prigione, gli mandò un ultimo messaggio per dirgli che era incinta, di te. Il messaggio diceva: Saremo insieme, nelle stelle, nell'erba, nel cemento, nel suono degli alberi di notte, in nostra figlia. Lui le mandò un ultimo messaggio. Diceva: Ti amo. Ho vissuto la vita più bella che si potesse mai vivere. Loro non possono portarci via niente; abbiamo avuto tutto.”
― Haley Tanner, quote from Vaclav and Lena
“This is what men do, they die, long before women. This is how it is meant to be, so that women can finally rest.)”
― Haley Tanner, quote from Vaclav and Lena
“Vaclav is always telling his father that the word in English is bladder, and his father always responds that learning how to name piss and shit is not why he came all this way from Russia.”
― Haley Tanner, quote from Vaclav and Lena
“Vaclav pensa em como, às vezes, quando está frio lá fora, você pode se sentir aquecido porque há pessoas ou lembranças de pessoas que o aquecem como uma fogueira, ou fazem você se sentir como um esquimó que não se incomoda muito com o frio extremo, mesmo que você sinta um frio extremo. Outras vezes você pode sentir que tudo no mundo inteiro está frio por certo motivo, e que está frio só para você, e você vê todas as pessoas com um fogo para aquecê-las, e você tem a sensação de que vai sentir frio para sempre. Ás vezes a gente pode sentir um frio assim até no verão.”
― Haley Tanner, quote from Vaclav and Lena
“No one knows how smart Lena is, because she doesn’t answer questions in class, and the teachers always frown at her, and she is always the last to finish her worksheets.”
― Haley Tanner, quote from Vaclav and Lena
Haley Tanner
Born place: in New York City, The United States
Born date October 2, 1982
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“It is not the activity of the subject of knowledge that produces a corpus of knowledge, useful or resistant to power, but power-knowledge, the processes and struggles that transverse it and of which it is made up, that determines the forms and possible domains of knowledge.”
― Michel Foucault, quote from The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction
“It's true," He whispered.
Suddenly, I was aware of how close we were standing, so close I could touch the square of his jaw or the chiseled planes of his face.
"What's true?"
"You are as beautiful as I remembered. Nefer," he said, and his breath came quickly. "Perhaps you want to simply remain my friend, but when I was gone, all I could think about was you. When I was supposed to be thinking about the rebellion, or how my men would find fresh water in the desert, all I could think of was how you wanted to be hidden away in the Temple of Hathor. Nefer," he said passionately, "you can't be a priestess."
I wanted to close my eyes and step into the shelter of his embrace, but beyond the column the entire court was gathering.
"But if I'm not to be a priestess," I asked him, "where will my place be in Thebes?" I held my breath, waiting for the right answer to come, willing it into his heart. Then he took me in his arms and brushed his lips against mine.
"With me," he said firmly. "As my queen.”
― Michelle Moran, quote from The Heretic Queen
“Anger has a way of returning.”
― Junot Díaz, quote from Drown
“I'm not a proper anything. Majoring in philosophy kind of turns positive assertions into maybes.”
― Kevin Hearne, quote from Hexed
“Because you've got balls of steel.'
I hated when people said that, like it assumed strength and being a male were synonymous. There was strength in being a woman. 'Spence, I don't have balls. Good thing, too, because they'd look terrible in the lingerie I'm wearing.”
― Cora Carmack, quote from Faking It
The Complete Stories
The Book of Negroes
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The Power of Now: A...
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