Quotes from Tia Williams

Women are expected to absorb traumas both subtle and loud and move on. Shoulder the weight of the world. But when the world fucks with us, the worst thing we can do is bury it. Embracing it makes us strong enough to fuck the world right back.

Girls are given the weight of the world, but nowhere to put it down. The power and magic born in that struggle? It's so terrifying to men that we invented reasons to burn y'all at the stake, just to keep our dicks hard.

I know what I was like." "You don't." Shane went dead serious. "You burst into my solitude, demanding to be seen. You were overwhelming. Just wild and weird and brilliant, and I never had a choice. I liked everything about you. Even the scary parts. I wanted to drown in your fucking bathwater.

And maybe that was what real, adult love was. Being fearless enough to hold each other close no matter how catastrophic the world became. Loving each other with enough ferocity to quell the fears of the past. Just fucking being there.

Girls are given the weight of the world, but nowhere to put it down.

Shane cupped her face in his hands. "It never ends, does it? Loving you never ends. Whether you're Genevieve or Eva. Whether I lose you for years or wake up to your face every morning. I love you. You're my home. And I want you forever.

Women didn't get to be bad boys.

I idealize you in fiction because I idealized you in real life," he continued.

The world was too loud for little-boy Shane. What he didn't know was that he was training himself to be a deeply empathetic writer—understanding nuanced emotion, spying humanity in unexpected places, seeing past the obvious. He was taking notes for his future self, who would write it all down.

I'm alone. When I'm comatose from writing and mothering, when I'm hurting too badly to cook, talk, or smile, I curl up with 'alone' like a security blanket. Alone doesn't care that I don't shave my legs in the winter. Alone never gets disappointed by me." Eva sighed. "It's the best relationship I've ever been in.

Have you ever been in a Walmart?" asked Eva. "Physically, yes. Spiritually, no.

Adult social stuff can't be harder than seventh grade. It's not hard to make friends. Just be an active listener. If you listen hard enough, you can tell what a person needs from you. And if you give them what they need, you've got a friend for life.

Religion. Hmm. I guess it's like fire. In good hands, fire can be used to do positive things, like keep you warm. Make s'mores. In bad hands, it can burn a witch at the stake. Lynch a Black body.

This new Eva, the free Eva, was tired of being rattled by life. How long had she lived being too terrified to show her real self? There was power in showing the messiness of her life and what it took to hold it together.

Isn't it obvious?" "Apparently not." "I'm not just writing about you," said Shane. "I'm writing to you.

No matter how perilous the journey, it's never over for true soul mates.

Running away wasn't empowering. An empowered woman would've indulged.

Teen girls rearrange the fucking world.

There's an alternate universe where I never left

If you have the opportunity to make a moment meaningful, why not take it?

I don't want these clinical, awkward setups. I don't feel like doing this twenty more times. I can't imagine meeting my soulmate through an interview process. I want to know without words. I want fall so violently that I risk breaking into a million pieces. I want to love so desperately it's indecent. I want it to be wild and fated and forever. A no choice connection.

but he can't stop himself from loving her. Maybe it's 'cause he knows that in the end, she'll survive him. ... By virtue of being a woman, she's stronger. Girls are given the weight of the world, but nowhere to put it down. The power and magic born in that struggle? It's so terrifying to men that we invented reasons to burn y'all at the stake, just to keep our dicks hard.

I stayed alive for you, and you. But you killed me anyway.

Destigmatizing male vulnerability is the first step toward rebuilding the absolute ruin that straight men have left the world in.