“But whose child was I? The question was there when I was born. It's still there. The question haunts me, worries me, troubles my sleep. You wouldn't think it would matter after all this time, but it does. Something deep inside me needs to know.”— Etta James, amazon.com
“I called myself "Etta James." It said "Etta James" on my records. Sometimes the emcee introduced me as "Peaches. Miss Etta James."”— Etta James, amazon.com
“You are scared of containing multitudes. Why does it have to be all or nothing? Why are you just straight up good or straight up evil? What if you're a lovable douchebag? What if you are a heavenly asshole? What if you are a destructive beautiful person?”— Melissa Broder, amazon.com
“The most apparent thing that I noticed was how most of the people in this study derive their sense of identity and well-being from their immediate surroundings rather than from within themselves, and that's why they broke down—just couldn't stand the pressure—they had nothing within them to hold up…”— Philip Zimbardo, amazon.com
“You can create in the prisoners feelings of boredom, a sense of fear to some degree, you can create a notion of arbitrariness that their life is totally controlled by us, by the system, you, me, and they'll have no privacy... We're going to take away their individuality in various ways. In general w…”— Philip Zimbardo, en.wikipedia.org
“You’re about as different as the next special snowflake girl who thinks the same stuff about herself. You’re as different as the next insecure woman labeling every other woman a thot or basic bitch because she puts more time into her appearance than you do. You’re losing because you’re spending so m…”— D. DANYELLE THOMAS, unfitchristian.com
“i say yes ‘you were angry about your body’ i am angry about my body i am angry about the money it eats and eats with its bad organs / the body is with organs and i do believe that / the body is also with labor and rarely paid.”— Liz Bowen, dreampoppress.net
“The main thing is to remain oneself, under any circumstances; that was and is our common purpose.”— Madeleine Albright, goodreads.com
“My heart is empty. The emptiness is a mirror turned toward my own face.”— Ingmar Bergman, Antonius Block, amazon.com
“You wonder about me. I wonder about you. Who are you? And what are you doing?”— Ruth Ozeki, amazon.com
“I mean they don’t seem able to love us just the way we are. They don’t seem able to love us unless they can keep changing us a little bit. They love their reasons for loving us almost as much as they love us, and most of the time more.”— J. D. Salinger, amazon.com
“You see, I am a poet, and not quite right in the head, darling. It’s only that.”— Edna St. Vincent Millay, amazon.com
“A poet is the most unpoetical of anything in existence; because he has no identity — he is continually informing — and filling some other body.”— John Keats, en.wikiquote.org
“All of us take pride and pleasure in the fact that we are unique, but I'm afraid that when all is said and done the police are right: it all comes down to fingerprints.”— David Sedaris, amazon.com