19 Quotes by Elaine Castillo

A name had a lifespan like anything else.

This was--small talk, Hero thought to herself. Though why people called it small, she didn't know. The effort it scraped out of her felt immense, exhausting, like she should have studied for days beforehand just to be ready for it, like she'd need to sleep a dreamless sleep all night just to recover from it.

What Hero could tell before she could tell anything else was that the movie [Terminator 2] took place in California, even if supposedly it took place in the future; she recognized California, the quality of sunlight on the people’s faces, the way its particular weight flattened and loosened people’s expressions.

You’ve been foreign all your life. When you finally leave, all you’re hoping for is a more bearable kind of foreignness.

Baggage means no matter how far you go, no matter how many times you immigrate, there are countries in you you’ll never leave.

White people always thought they were full of toxins, so you could make a lot of money just by claiming to be able to remove them.

You don’t know that you’re going to love him. and that you won’t be able to differentiate this love for him from your devouring hunger to be recognized.

This was – small talk, Hero thought to herself. Though why people called it small, she didn’t know. The effort it scraped out of her felt immense, exhausting, like she should have studied for days beforehand just to be ready for it, like she’d need to sleep a dreamless sleep all night just to recover from it.

When she turned her head back to look at Rosalyn, she saw that Rosalyn had been studying her for longer than she’d been aware, arms around her knees, the gaze alert and considering. She looked at Hero like she’d looked at her this way a million times before and would do so a million times more; like she was looking at something she was used to but not tired of, something she could trace on paper with her eyes closed.