She thought of Aziza's stutter, and of what Aziza had said earlier about fractures and powerful collisions deep down and how sometimes all we see on the surface is a slight tremor.

Behind every trial and sorrow that He makes us shoulder, God has a reason.

Marriage can wait, education cannot.

I will follow you to the ends of the world.

I’m all you have in this world Mariam, and when I’m gone you’ll have nothing. You ARE nothing!

Learn this now and learn it well. Like a compass facing north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.

A society has no chance of success if it's women are uneducated.

You see, some things I can teach you. Some you learn from books. But there are things that, well, you just have to see and feel.

She remembered all too well how time had dragged without him, how she had shuffled about feeling waylaid, out of balance. How she could ever cope with his permanent absence?

You see, some things I can teach you. Some you learn from books. But they are things that, well, you just have to see and feel. p.147

And the past held only this wisdom: that love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion.

Often people that criticise your life are usually the same people that don't know the price you paid to get where you are today. True friends see the full picture of your soul.

Lies have short shelf lives. Lies go bad. Lies rot and stink up the joint.

By definition, poetry works with qualities and dynamics that mainstream society is reluctant to face head-on. It's an interesting phenomenon that by necessity, poetry is just below the radar.

She stood upon a continent of ice, which sparkled between sea and sky, endless and dazzling, as though the world kept all its treasure there; a scale which balanced poetry and prayer.

The really poor man is not the one who lacks money, but the one who lacks the joy of the heart.

Personally, I think life offers us the opportunity to take chances and make changes all the time.

Emotional troubles are like landfill. Get them outside, and the air disintegrates them.

What you aim for, as an actor, is to be able to play a range of different roles.

Every Country hath its Machiavel.

The worst day in a man's life is when he sits down and begins thinking about how he can get something for nothing.