All my life I have overheard, all my life I have listened to what people will let slip when they think you are part of their we. A are so powerful. It is the most corrupt and formidable institution on earth. Its hands are full of the crispest and most persuasive currency. Its mouth is full of received, repeating language. The close its ranks to protect the space inside it, where the air is different. It does not protect people. It protects its own shape.

— Patricia Lockwood

We often take for granted the notion that some people are insiders, while others are outsiders. But such a notion is a social contrivance, that, like virtually every public construct, is a legacy of a primordial and tribal mentality.

— Jamake Highwater