"This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals—sounds that say listen to this, it is important."

"If you want to remove evil from the minds of others, then first give up evil intentions yourself."

"If blacks read something as antiblack, the goal isn’t to lash out in response and claim it’s not; if blacks read something as antiblack without explanation, then accept the onus of inquisition and ask exactly how—even if the field is or seems hostile to you, and even if that hostility seems unjustified to you. It might seem ‘unfair’ to suggest that, but really the world is structured as antiblack, and this is how these blacks negotiate their blackness in it; that’s just how it is, and to engage them from your position, you can only approach them humbly—if you really want to try to achieve the impossible and establish a coalition of asian and black writers on race, on tumblr and beyond, then, unfortunately, the onus is on you. Projecting back onto them is what keeps drawing their ire. I say they because I don’t approach things on tumblr that way, but I am they as well."

"Everything I’ve ever let go of had claw marks on it."