Warsan Shire Quotes

Light attracts light. But sometimes your light attracts moths and your warmth attracts parasites. Protect your space and energy

Later that night, I held an atlas on my lap, ran my fingers across the whole world, and whispered, ‘where does it hurt?’ It answered, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.

Document the moments you feel most in love with yourself - what you're wearing, who you're around, what you're doing. Recreate and repeat.

My alone feels so good, I'll only have you if you're sweeter than my solitude.

It's not my responsibility to be beautiful. I'm not alive for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me.

Make peace with your body, it's not manmade, there are no flaws, there are no mistakes.

I’m overwhelmed. My biggest downfall is my brightest blessing, I feel too much, all the time. Ya Allah, if it’ll keep my heart soft, break my heart every day.

Don't assume, ask. Be kind. Tell the truth. Don't say anything you can't stand behind fully. Have integrity. Tell people how you feel.

Mother says there are locked rooms inside all women, kitchen of love, bedroom of grief, bathroom of apathy. Sometimes, the men, they come with keys, and sometimes the men, they come with hammers.

You are terrifying, and strange, and beautiful. Something not everyone knows how to love.

With you, intimacy colors my voice. Even 'hello' sounds like 'come here'.

I am a lover without a lover. I am lovely and lonely and I belong deeply to myself.

The ego hurts you like this: you become obsessed with the one person who does not love you. blind to the rest who do.

We took such care of tomorrow, but died on the way there.

I tend to the wound so often, it never heals.

I have my mother’s mouth and my father’s eyes; on my face they are still together.

Two people who were once very close can without blame or grand betrayal become strangers. Perhaps this is the saddest thing in the world.

Perhaps, the problem is not the intensity of your love, but the quality of the people you are loving.

How far have you walked for men who've never held your feet in their laps?

There is no intimacy like that between two women who have chosen to be sisters.

I belong deeply to myself.

You can't make homes out of human beings.

I want to love, but my hair smells of war and running and running.

I won't glorify or romanticise heartbreak, for me it was a kind of death and I was forced to keep living.

To my daughter I will say, ‘when the men come, set yourself on fire.’

My heart is a flower blossoming out of my mouth.

At the end of the day, it isn’t where I came from. Maybe home is somewhere I’m going and never have been before.

Make love like you have no secrets like you've never been left never been hurt like the world don't owe you a single wretched thing.

Your mouth is a lonely place but I keep coming back.

I tore up and ate my own passport in an airport hotel once. I'm bloated with language I can’t afford to forget.

My favourite people, biggest inspirations and closest friends are all women. Not a coincidence.

You tried to change didn’t you? Closed your mouth more, tried to be softer, prettier, less volatile, less awake... You can’t make homes out of human beings. Someone should have already told you that.

With you, intimacy colours my voice.even ‘hello’ sounds like ‘come here'.

How far have you walked for men who’ve never held your feet in their laps?

Loving you was like going to war I never came back the same.

Sometimes it feels like someone else is wearing my body.

Later that night she picked the polish offwith her front teeth until the bed you sharedfor seven years seemed speckled with glitterand blood.

[…] but she cannot make him eat, like you.

I want to make love, but my hair smells of war and running and running.

His eyes were the same colour as the sea in a postcard someone sends you when they love you, but not enough to stay.

Document the moments you feel most in love with yourself - what you’re wearing, who you’re around, what you’re doing. Recreate and repeat.

The only darkness we should allow into our lives is the night, for even then, we have the moon.

later that night i held an atlas in my lap ran my fingers across the whole world and whispered where does it hurt?it answered everywhere everywhere everywhere.

No one leaves home unless homes is the mouth of a shark.

Did you tell people that songs weren’t the same as a warm body, a soft mouth?

No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.

all those nights with the phone warming the side of my face like the sun.