“Will I ever be done, transformed in the past tense, or will I always be transforming, better and better until I die?” — Carmen Maria Machado Change Copy Share Image
“She’s like dough, how the give of it beneath kneading hands disguises its sturdiness, its potential.” — Carmen Maria Machado Like Dough Copy Share Image
“Stories can sense happiness and snuff it out like a candle.” — Carmen Maria Machado Happiness Copy Share Image
“A feeling settles over me—a one-beer-deep feeling, a no-more-skittering-feet-after-the-trap-snaps feeling.” — Carmen Maria Machado Deep feeling Copy Share Image
“I was a creature so small, trapped in some crevice of an indifferent universe.” — Carmen Maria Machado Trapped Copy Share Image
“Brides never fare well in stories. Stories can sense happiness and snuff it out like a candle.” — Carmen Maria Machado Brides Copy Share Image
“Many people live and die without ever confronting themselves in the darkness.” — Carmen Maria Machado Darkness Copy Share Image
“You never live with a woman, you live inside of her, I overheard my father say to my brother once, and it… — Carmen Maria Machado Overheard Copy Share Image
“What I say: “Why did you leave her with me?” What I want to say: “This almost broke me, but it didn’t.… — Carmen Maria Machado End of time Copy Share Image
“I called her two days later, never having believed more firmly in love at first sight, in destiny. When she laughed on… — Carmen Maria Machado Destiny Copy Share Image
“When you think about it, stories have this way of running together like raindrops in a pond. Each is borne from the… — Carmen Maria Machado Apart Copy Share Image
“And there was nothing in my eyes. Or even worse -- nothingness. Not the presence of a thing but the presence of… — Carmen Maria Machado Copy Share Image
“Please don't shut me out. Or if you're going to, just tell me, tell me so that I'm not dangling in this… — Carmen Maria Machado Honesty Copy Share Image
“That night, I wash myself. The silky suds between my legs are the color and scent of rust, but I am newer… — Carmen Maria Machado Feminism Copy Share Image
“I will look where her eyes would be. I will open my mouth to ask but then realize the question has answered… — Carmen Maria Machado Children Copy Share Image
“I once heard a story about a girl who requested something so vile from her paramour that he told her family and… — Carmen Maria Machado Family Copy Share Image
“(If you read this story out loud, please use the following voices: ME: as a child, high-pitched, forgettable; as a woman, the… — Carmen Maria Machado Children Copy Share Image
“She was a stranger because something essential was shielded, released in tiny bursts until it became a flood---a flood of what I… — Carmen Maria Machado Disillusionment Copy Share Image
“I took a step toward her. "It is my right to reside in my own mind. It is my right ," I… — Carmen Maria Machado Life Copy Share Image
“I have always been a teller of stories. When I was a young girl, my mother carried me out of a grocery… — Carmen Maria Machado Grocery store Copy Share Image
“Mara, remember how you kicked sand into that neighbor child’s eyes? I yelled at you and made you apologize in your best… — Carmen Maria Machado Children Copy Share Image
“Beyond the table, there is an altar, with candles lit for Billie Holiday and Willa Carter and Hypatia and Patsy Cline. Next… — Carmen Maria Machado Altar Copy Share Image
