38 Quotes by Vivek Shraya

Unlike many artists, she had never considered herself a mere vessel for the muse, or a medium, or even a parent. Her songs weren't her "babies". Her songs were her.

She always knew she was on the verge of invention at the precise moment when originality felt impossible. That instead of surrendering to despair, she would needle in and out and through her brain until an idea surfaced ― naked, stripped of predictability and familiarity. By embedding herself into her song, she muted any risk of passing off mimicry as art. Why wasn’t fully committing to creation more desirable than observing what everyone else was doing and doing the same?

I wish we could go back to that moment. The discovering each other phase. The addictive self-revelation through another's eyes phase.

What if you were to challenge yourself every time you feel afraid of me—and all of us who are pushing against gendered expectations and restrictions? What if you cherished us as archetypes of realized potential? What if you were to surrender to sublime possibility—yours and mine? Might you then free me at last of my fear, and of your own?

i have white dreamsbillboards magazinesmighty praise accoladestop 10 lists and top 10 hitsso i climb dodge bouldersearn blisters but even the top of the mountain is white

I’m afraid of men because it was men who taught me to fear. I’m afraid of men because it was men who taught me to fear the word girl by turning it into a weapon they used to hurt me. I’m afraid of men because it was men who taught me to hate and eventually destroy my femininity. I’m afraid of men because it was men who taught me to fear the extraordinary parts of myself

Falling in love with another human is terrifying. As our language insists, romantic love is always preceded by a fall, the necessity of losing control and potentially hurting yourself in the process of connecting with another

What would my body look and feel like if I didn't have to mold it into both a shield and an ornament? How do I love a body that was never fully my own?

My brownness turns out to be a form of queerness in and of itself and makes me too queer for gay men.