Nese Cankaya > Nese's Quotes

“It's like pressing a bleeding sore repeatedly, trying to see how far you can go with your tolerance for pain, because if you know the limits of it, you gain some sense of control over it.”
― R.F. Kuang , Yellowface

“Not every girl has a rape story. But almost every girl has an “I’m not sure, I didn’t like it, but I can’t quite call it rape” story.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“But the best revenge is to thrive.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“Awards don’t matter—at least, I am told this constantly by the people who regularly win them.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic. Writing is creating something out of nothing, is opening doors to other lands.
Writing gives you power to shape your own world when the real one hurts too much. To stop writing would kill me. I'd never be able to walk through a bookstore without fingering the spines with longing, wondering at the lengthy editorial process that got these titles on shelves and reminiscing about my own. And I'd spend the rest of life curdling with jealousy every time someone like Emmy Cho gets a book deal, every time I learn that some young up-and-comer is living the life I should be living.

Writing has formed the core of my identity since I was a child. After Dad died, after Mom withdrew into herself, and after Rory decided to forge a life without me, writing gave me a reason to stay alive. And as miserable as it makes me, I'll cling to that magic for as long as I live.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“Every time she tried to branch out to new projects, they kept insisting that Asian was her brand, was what her audience expected. They never let her talk about anything other than being an immigrant, other than the fact that half her family died in Cambodia, that her dad killed himself on the twentieth anniversary of Tiananmen. Racial trauma sells, right? They treated her like a museum”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“But Twitter is real life; it's realer than real life, because that is the realm that the social economy of publishing exists on, because the industry has no alternative.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“which is why revulsion for Rupi Kaur’s poetry has become a millennial personality trait.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“I dub historical exploitation novels: inauthentic stories that use troubled pasts as an entertaining set piece for white entertainment.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“Who has the right to write about suffering?”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“It’s hard, after all, to be friends with someone who outshines you at every turn.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“But now, I see, author efforts have nothing to do with a book’s success. Bestsellers are chosen. Nothing you do matters. You just get to enjoy the perks along the way.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“I need to create. It is a physical urge, a craving, like breathing, like eating; when it’s going well, it’s better than sex, and when it’s not, I can’t take pleasure in anything else.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“Reading let's us live in someone else's stories. Literature builds bridges; it makes our world larger, not smaller.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“This is what I love about writing - it offers us endless opportunities to reinvent ourselves, and the stories we tell about ourselves. It lets us acknowledge every aspect of our heritage and history.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“Don't we all want a friend who won't ever challenge our superiority, because they already know it's a lost cause? Don't we all need someone we can treat as a punching bag?”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“A writer needs to be read. I want to move people's hearts. I want my books in stores all over the world. I couldn't stand to be like Mom or Rory, living their little and self-contained lives with no great projects or prospects to propel them from one chapter to the next. I want the world to wait with bated breath for what I will say next. I want my words to last forever. I want to be eternal, permanent; when I'm gone, I want to leave behind a mountain of pages that scream, Juniper Song was here, and she told us what was on her mind.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“It’s about wishing you knew who your parents were. It’s about needing things from your parents you’ll never get.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“We accept the love we think we deserve.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“So, I guess we are who we are for alot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“It's strange because sometimes, I read a book, and I think I am the people in the book.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“He's a wallflower. You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“We didn't talk about anything heavy or light. We were just there together. And that was enough”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“And all the books you've read have been read by other people. And all the songs you've loved have been heard by other people. And that girl that's pretty to you is pretty to other people. and that if you looked at these facts when you were happy, you would feel great because you are describing 'unity.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“I just want you to know that you’re very special… and the only reason I’m telling you is that I don’t know if anyone else ever has.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“If somebody likes me, I want them to like the real me, not what they think I am. And I don't want them to carry it around inside. I want them to show me, so I can feel it, too. I want them to be able to do whatever they want around me.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“I don't even remember the season. I just remember walking between them and feeling for the first time that I belonged somewhere.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“If you care about somebody, you should want them to be happy. Even if you wind up being left out.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“What about when someone doesn't need a shoulder? What if they need the arms?”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“He’s my whole world.”
“Don’t ever say that about anyone again. Not even me.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower