"It is dangerous to be discovered." p. 16

"There are at least three ways to love you: as you were, as you are, as you will be. I love you. That means I choose all three." p. 22

"Tuxuci, named in the Tupi language, has kept her name through all this colonization, while most other marine mammals are named after a colonizer at worst and hailed by a bland western description at best. It's a miracle. We say her name." p. 30

"In 2016, reports circulated with evidence that dolphin mothers sing to their babies while they are in the womb, and for a few weeks after so they can learn their names." p. 31

"I love you for your breath, your dense, your stubborn growth impossible. Your evolution happening right now." p. 45

"The bowhead whale lives for centuries and could potentially grow forever." p. 46

"I believe collaboration is natural and can be reclaimed." p. 51

"When I can't see the shore I'm here timing my breathing to yours. Knowing collectively we can leap, we can dive, we can practice our faith in each other." p. 53

"Most cetaceans have a crystalline lens over their eyes so they see underwater. The South Asian river dolphins do not. So they look instead with their voices." p. 68

"But if I could breathe a rainbow, I would grow myself towards you. I would brighten what's between us, filter nourishing possibilities." p. 82

"Amazon river dolphins have not done well in captivity. Less than 20 percent have been able to survive in aquariums worldwide." p. 88

"Who benefitted from the conspiracy to teach us that we were not beautiful? That we were not possible? Who first turned our adaptation into profit?" p. 99

"The actual suffering and endangerment of marine mammals on the planet right now is caused by the extractive, destructive processes and consequences of capitalism." p. 101

"And all my love to you who preserve the mysteries. Whom the empire of binaries will never define." p. 110

"The role of ancestral power. Surrender and change. I wonder what happened over millions of years for a being known for its sharp teeth scientists now theorize are never used to chew, but are actually mechanisms that simply attune their echolocation." p. 123

"How diligent your breath for staying deep. And all the noise that bounces off our lives. How powerful we are when we're together." p. 130

"How I love us, Black unicorns, I love the youth of our adaptation. I love every way our bodies tell us not to blend in to what surrounds us, but instead to break through with brave sensitivity." p. 132

"Oh yes. I love the way you lived a layered Blackness where Black meets Black across itself as Black. How you make family out of need and tradition out of what is left and found." p. 133

"And I can live this whole life from my heart. Despite all my impatience and my fear. I can know my heart, like love knows you. Has always known." p. 142