A House Without Windows Quotes
"Dignity is not in what work you do. It's in how you do that work."
"Feeling angry was better than feeling afraid."
"The law was the only way to protect the weak and punish the aggressors."
"A common culture and language wasn't everything. Maybe Elena was everything."
"You know, I already miss you, baby. I’m going to want to visit you every weekend in D.C."
"You’ve finished school, you have a job. It’s time to get married. Are you waiting for all the good girls to be taken by boys that don’t even have a quarter of your looks or smarts?"
"But why isn’t she talking? What happened here, Khanum? Did you kill your husband?"
"Dear God, what have you brought upon us? What did we do to deserve such a fate? What are we to do?"
"No wife or husband is without fault. Only those two know the truth of their story."
"My daughter, a one-inch scorpion can be just as deadly as a hulking tiger. You’ve got to learn to pay attention and respect every threat for what it is."
"I am no judge but... I... I would say, as a matter of decency, that she should be allowed to stay here and tend to her children until these matters can be sorted out."
"Don’t you think it’s time for Afghans to look after our own country, though? We have to learn to stand on our own feet."
"I’ve done nothing. I swear to God I’ve not sinned!"
"All mothers did, didn't they? How could they not bear a little resentment toward people who took took took all the time?"
"Men love for a moment because they are clever; Women are fools because they love forever."
"Alone and free of angst and sorrow, I've bled enough for today and tomorrow. Now it is time for my bud to bloom, I'm a sparrow in love with solitude."
"Medicine is what this man calls his liquor, Strange is the remedy that only makes him sicker."
"It took time to despise or love a husband—this much Zeba knew from her conversations with other women."
"Marriage was a sport. One point for love, one point for hate. The heart kept score."
"Allah decides the moment of your birth and your death well before you take a breath."
"By morning, Zeba would be a bit more Zeba—relying on no one to fix the small messes an average day brought."
"She loved them with all her heart, even the ones she’d lost—or perhaps especially the ones she’d lost."
"So many days, Zeba had woken with a hope their lives could be restored. So many nights, she fell asleep chiding her own naïveté."
"Innocence is a word that can only be spoken if your womanly veil has yet to be broken."
"If a man’s honor is his highest prize, why then stash it between a woman’s thighs?"
"Why are you here? Do you really think there’s a way to defend me?" - Zeba
"I’m here because the answer to that question is yes." - Yusuf
"There is nothing more. There is nothing in your bag that can change what happened." - Zeba
"I lost my children the day I was taken away... They deserve better from their mother." - Zeba
"Oh merciful Allah—their fates are in your hands. My fate is in your hands." - Zeba
"I understand. And what does Safatullah-sahib say on the matter?" - Jawad
"Protection, Jawad-jan. No family is above misfortune." - Gulnaz
"Any parent, his mother had told him once, is better than no parent at all." - Basir
"Make me a good taweez so you and the rest of the village can never know." - Gulnaz
"Do you see? Look at how thick the smoke is! Just think how much evil eye has been cast upon your home and your children."
"You're being stubborn. I'm only trying to help you. I know something's wrong. I can feel it in my blood."
"When they were with the rest of the family, Zeba could sense that the other women bit their tongues around Gulnaz."
"The first time she stood up to her mother, Zeba's voice shook."
"Evil? You think I'm evil? Have you no idea what evil goes on out there, really?"
"Our world is the spaces between the rocks and meat. We see the face that should but doesn't smile, the sliver of sun between dead tree branches."
"Life's made your heart as tense as a blister, Don't spill its pus on your innocent sister."
"He thought that if he pulled back, she might realize how badly she needed his help."
"The sun cannot be hidden behind two fingers."
"If she did not find a way to claim the cold walls around her, they would close in on her."
"To survive, they had to adapt. They could adapt themselves or they could adapt the space they occupied."
"Listen carefully, for in the heart of desperation lies the seed of adaptation."
"Jadu is a fickle creature. You’re at its mercy once you call on it."
"Innocence is a luxury not everyone can afford."
"Time is not the problem, child. Time is all we have."
"Children always forgive their mothers. That's the way God's designed them."
"True justice, which is as rare as a seashell in this country."
"You don't know anything. You think it's that simple but it's not!"
"Truth. Basir knew more truths about his father than he cared to admit."
"They tried to save each other, mother and son, but their mutinous efforts were rewarded with broader bruises, louder shouts, and harsher curses."
"A man’s might was right because no one had ever told him otherwise."
"Recalling the futility of it, Basir sometimes chose to shrink away when he felt the chilling wind of his father’s presence entering their home."
"The injustice inside it leached all the energy from her body."
"This prison, with its beauty salon and televisions and crayon-scribbled walls, was a dungeon."
"Sometimes it was overpowered by another spell, Gulnaz had explained, and sometimes it was struck down by God."
"People only say nice things about the dead, so you never know what the truth is. You can be a brute in life, but the moment you die, all is forgiven."
"Everyone loves a person until they know them."
"You’re a kind woman. You remind me so much of my aunt."
"Siblings are supposed to love each other but some people are so busy being jerks that they forget who their siblings are."
"It’s the smell of opportunity, rebirth, and hope."
"God made turtles with a hard shell. They’re born expecting to need that shell. Women are not born that way."
"I’ve raised my children differently, thank God."
"You’re not a police officer. Why are you asking questions?"
"The best thing for that poor little girl would be for no one to know what had happened."
"I know what they might do to her if they find out. Every woman in Chil Mahtab knows. Every woman and girl in Afghanistan knows!"
"There’s absolutely no way I’m letting you deal the cards again."
"If you think that was bad, you would be horrified to see her now."
"I don’t consider it a waste of time to do my job. Maybe you should ask yourself if you’re doing yours."
"Article sixty-seven of the penal code of Afghanistan states that ‘a person who while committing a crime lacks his senses and intelligence due to insanity or other mental disease has no penal responsibility and shall not be punished.’"
"Our prayers are more powerful than any tool, any drug, any weapon."
"Men were always so frightened by their mortality that they obsessed over ways to live forever."
"Every day she’d tolerated his drink and heavy hand had been an admission that she’d been powerless."
"That girl could have been her daughter. The truth was, when Zeba had walked into the courtyard, she’d seen her Little Girl."
"She was horrified, thinking she was seeing her Little Girl’s honor ravaged by a man she’d fed, excused, and obeyed."
"She and Kamal were finished the moment her fingers had wrapped around the wooden handle."
"I am grateful that someone had the great wisdom to divide time into days and days into hours and hours into minutes because without knowing that the seconds were passing I would likely die waiting for these forty days to pass."
"Tonight, you will listen to the sorrows of my soul, though tomorrow, you will forget all that has been told."
"Truth is a hard sell. You know how we are. We prefer to be polite or to protect our honor."
"He knows it's true. But you did get your hair from your father. You should thank him for that since he's the only man his age who can stand outside the masjid without his head reflecting sunlight."
"Yusuf shook his head. 'And, Yusuf, you can't make a decision on one conversation.'"
"What would I know anyway? I'm just a woman who's been married for thirty-something years."
"The stories you tell me and the chaos we hear about on the news are disturbing. How can you stand to be around these kinds of things?"
"Yusuf did not feel like a voyeur in watching these private lives. He felt more like a guardian of secrets."
"Madar-jan, this is where I can do something real. The country needs a real justice system if it's going to survive as a society. I want to be part of that."
"I've never loved anyone else. I've never even looked at another girl the way I look at her."
"People hear this kind of blasphemy and they want blood, but it's hard to get blood out of a dead man."
"At the end of the day, Yusuf, no one will trust you. They barely trust me. If you don't see that now, you'll see it soon."
"People think just because I'm a judge that anything I have has come to me by way of bribes."
"I'm tired of the way things have been. People think just because I'm a judge that anything I have has come to me by way of bribes."
"As long as men are the judges, nothing will change."
"She's like her mother or maybe even better. I didn't believe it at first. I don't buy into that jadu stuff usually, but this is the first time I've seen it myself."
"The worst thing you can do is doubt a jadugar."
"The fan purred but blew only hot air into the car."
"She’s been well. She has a strong spirit, but you knew that already, I’m sure."
"It’s their collective suffering that I work to heal."
"She’s got the women under her thumb with that jadu of hers."