Being white in America is so potent, so seductive. It can blind a person without them knowing it. Being white can make a whole community forget who they are and where they came from.

Small talk needs to get big at some phase.

Is there any greater compliment than someone thinking you’re too gorgeous to be yourself?

This whole 'leaving' thing? It's in me.

Independence is a muscle, one that needs to be stretched and challenged and broken down a little in order to get good and strong.

It’s troubling to see how privilege accumulates over generations, particularly white privilege in the US, and, when people reach a certain level of safety, to see how they pull the ladder up after themselves.

Annie Moore never made a fortune or wrote a book or invented a computer, and why should she? Why should immigrants be deemed extraordinary in order to deserve a place at the table?

Perfection, when contrived, is laughable.

Aside from getting champagne in your eye or being snapped at by your pet toucan, bemoaning a lack of purpose is the most privileged problem in the known universe so I won’t drone on about it.

Being alone is great for all the small stuff. Seeing whatever you want at the movies. Eating in that weird way you can only eat by yourself. Going on vacation wherever you like. Being alone is ideal for eavesdropping, for really relaxing, and at times for forcing me to be sociable.