Gabby Rivera Quotes & Sayings

At any given moment, millions of systems are at work all around us. The blood pumping through our veins. The planets. The food chain. They're all super-specific systems linked to one another. Some of the systems occur organically as a greater part of the universe, like surprises and sunsets. But others are just made-up. Like, why is the school day eight hours long? And why is it that, even though I'm the smartest person in the world, I can't vote? The arbitrariness of it all is the thing that drives me nuts. — Gabby Rivera

When boys talked, it sounded like feral dogs barking. They fiended for attention, were always aggressive, and made me wish I could put them down. — Gabby Rivera

We lived loud and hard against a neighborhood built to contain us. We moved like the earth pushing its way through cement sidewalks. — Gabby Rivera

It made sense that these adult women worked hard on their friendships, even when sex and romantic love weren't part of the equation. It made me wonder about all the ways that we are able to love each other and how movies and TV make it seem like you have to discard people once they break your heart or once the love disappears. Maybe that was a horrible lie, a complete disservice to real love. — Gabby Rivera

Get a little hysterical, Juliet. I mean that's why vibrators were invented, right? — Gabby Rivera

Reading would make me brilliant, but writing would make me infinite. — Gabby Rivera

Libraries are safe but also exciting. Libraries are where nerds like me go to refuel. They are safe-havens where the polluted noise of the outside world, with all the bullies and bro-dudes and anti-feminist rhetoric, is shut out. Libraries have zero tolerance for bullshit. Their walls protect us and keep us safe from all the bastards that have never read a book for fun. — Gabby Rivera

Seriously, some of my best friends are libraries. — Gabby Rivera

It made me wonder about all the ways that we are able to love each other and how movies and TV make it seem like you have to discard people once they break your heart or once the love disappears. — Gabby Rivera

You can't just go punching a bunch of kids in the face. Remember, you were once that kid looking for someone, anyone to connect to. That's still you. — Gabby Rivera

You'll meet people that you love who fuck up constantly. You'll learn how to weed out the assholes from the warriors. You'll know what groups of people to stay away from because they're not safe spaces for your heart. You'll learn when to forgive human error and when to eradicate the unworthy from your spirit. — Gabby Rivera

Who needs a girlfriend when you have abandonment issues and super-powers? — Gabby Rivera

I understood 'microaggressions' to mean 'little bullshit acts of racism. — Gabby Rivera

The world is filled with enough room to flee at any moment. In — Gabby Rivera

I was used to the buttoned up, wealthy, Casper-skinned whites that always spoke in their library voices and used words like sassy and spicy to describe me. I was used to white people that embodied the suburban American dream. White people like Lainie's parents, who wished their daughters weren't dating me, but tolerated it and engaged me in discussions about affirmative action and how I benefited from it. — Gabby Rivera

I wanted her to change my world."
"Mi amor, only you can change your world. — Gabby Rivera

(...)my love for you is deeper than anything that happened between us. My love for you is the sun, the sky, and the moon. It's the air I breathe. It lives in everything I do. It's better than good. It's everlasting. — Gabby Rivera

Scrape knees for love. Tell hard truths for love. And definitely run heart-first into the unknown for love. Try to have a plan. But if you don't, make sure you have people. You coming, mi gente? — Gabby Rivera

How was I supposed to survive here? These Portlanders were an entirely different breed of white people. — Gabby Rivera

It's about women of color owning their own space and their voices being treated with dignity and respect. It's about women of color not having to shout over voices to be heard. We are the dominant force almost all the time. White women are the stars of all the movies. White women are the lead speakers in feminist debates, and it's little white girls that send the nation into a frenzy when they've been kidnapped. ...check your privilege. We're the ones that need to give women of color space for their voices. — Gabby Rivera

Every day that we exist on this planet the forces of white men in power are aimed at policing women's bodies and subjugating our identities to make us feel lesser than, to control us through physical and economic annihilation. — Gabby Rivera

All of the moments where I was made to feel like an outsider in a group that was supposed to have room for me added up and left me feeling so much shame. — Gabby Rivera

You will meet people who'll change the course of your life forever. Learn when to hold onto yourself and when to fly directly into the storm. — Gabby Rivera

(...)my mom was the gravitational pull that kept me stuck to this Earth — Gabby Rivera

If it's a phase, so what? If it's your whole life, who cares? You're destined to evolve and understand yourself in ways you never imagined before. And you've got our blood running through your beautiful veins, so no matter what, you've been blessed with the spirit of women who know how to love. — Gabby Rivera

You gonna get a cut?" Blue Lips asked. "I'm afraid of looking like a dyke," I said. "Are you a dyke?" "I think so." "Then no matter what you do with your hair, you're gonna look like a dyke," Blue Lips said. They — Gabby Rivera

I'm going to love you without being in love with you. — Gabby Rivera