As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow Quotes
"I stare with tired eyes before picking them up, my bones aching with every movement."
"The sun has been slowly melting away the remains of winter, but the cold is still here."
"For every life I can’t save during my shift, one more drop of blood becomes a part of me."
"Either we’ll get arrested by the military or a bomb will kill us. There’s nothing to fight for because we can’t fight."
"Our spirits are defiant, and our history is glorious."
"I want to survive. I want my family. I just want my family back."
"Despite the window being locked, a chill sweeps the room, and I shiver, knowing what’s about to happen."
"Every day more of your patients pass away. Each one of them is another regret in your heart."
"The fight isn’t just in Syria, Salama. It’s everywhere."
"I see the love you have for me. I see your sacrifice and your kindness."
"I’ll endure it all for her. I’ll drown in my tears and offer my soul to him if I can keep Layla safe."
"What’s the harm in asking? You’re only getting information. Just to know how much it costs."
"It’s not a big deal. Just doing my job. And I’m a pharmacist."
"I can’t take this. Give it to your brother."
"Dusk has turned the sky into a deep pink flecked across the blue."
"I feel hypnotized by each word, drinking in their meaning, feeling them bring peace and serenity to every cell in my body, washing away the sorrows."
"When I go back into the living room, Kenan is beside his sister, and I take the opposite side of the mattress."
"Cephalexin takes about ten to twenty-four hours to reach a steady concentration in the blood. Tomorrow, insh’Allah, she’ll be all right."
"It finally dawns on me that I’m spending the night at a boy’s house."
"Studio Ghibli is my goal. That place is where ideas and imaginations run wild. They weave stories like magic there."
"I rack my brain, trying to remember if Mama ever mentioned an Aljendi, and come up blank."
"I’m sorry, but I feel like we really have met."
"She’s the youngest in the family. We were all so happy when she was born."
"We were supposed to meet for coffee about a year ago."
"The worst of outcomes is what is most hilarious."
"We’re not an exception. We just see death more regularly than they do."
"We have to leave. I have to take Layla and leave, or she won’t survive this."
"No Syrian family has evaded the dictatorship’s cruelty."
"We’ll all be tor—we’ll all face the same fate."
"I’d be cutting out my heart by leaving. This land is me and I am her."
"The most beautiful sunsets are always the ones that come after a rain."
"Our food is delicious, and I read once on Facebook about a Syrian restaurant in Germany that was successful with the locals."
"We are stripped from our choices, so we latch onto what will ensure our survival."
"The world is not sweet or kind. The ones outside are waiting to eat us and pick their teeth with our bones."
"I remember my hallucination of a broken Hamza and wonder when it’ll become Kenan’s reality."
"She’s alone. It’s as if it were yesterday: Layla and Hamza coming back from their honeymoon, their eyes glowing like the Ramadan lanterns."
"I see it in the green vines waking up from their winter slumber, squirming through the rubble. Daffodils blooming, their petals opening bashfully."
"The sky is so beautiful after rainfall."
"What happiness can you find in this wasteland? There’s nothing for you here. Your family is gone."
"She’s going to be fine, insh’Allah. But she needs to drink."
"The IV will replace what she’s lost. Alhamdulillah it wasn’t something worse."
"People are getting tricked, robbed—left alone in the middle of nowhere. Girls are… being trafficked or married off. And boys are forced into child labor."
"Salama, you have to at least acknowledge that this isn’t right."
"It’s not fair and it’s not right. But you can’t abandon Lama and Yusuf."
"One by one, everyone leaves. Soon enough there won’t be anyone left to defend Syria."
"You, more than anyone, can change the world."
"Your love for Syria will drive you. The guilt is just a side effect."
"We will plant new lemon trees. We’ll rebuild our cities, and we will be free."
"This is the price of a future with freedom, Khawf. It’s a price Hamza pays every day."
"The fight isn’t over, and it’s not only here. Syria’s entire history has become faded in people’s memories."
"Every lemon will bring forth a child and the lemons will never die out."
"If my blood could save her. If my death would bring our people their justice, I wouldn’t… there’s no question about it."
"I’m exhausted from all of this. I’m exhausted we’re suffocating and no one gives the slightest bit of a damn."
"They might be hallucinations now, Salama. But they are very real possibilities."
"How do your eyes always shine so brightly?"
"Nothing lasts forever. Not even our pain."
"You’ll keep your promise to him by saving yourself."
"The protests have spread far and wide throughout several Syrian cities."
"Death doesn’t scare me, Doctor. It’s being taken alive."
"If we die, at least we die doing the right thing."
"We’ll build tunnels and mazes deep in the ground."
"I hope you could see yourself the way I see you."
"I’m okay. Maybe it’s shock, but… I think it’s acceptance."
"We’re only human. Pushed into a corner, we’re forced to make decisions we wouldn’t normally make."
"You know I’m in Heaven. You know I’m safe and happy."
"Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for saving lives."
"It’s a story about a little girl who stumbles on magical portraits that take her to alternate universes. But to cross through, she has to sacrifice something valuable."
"I don’t hear anything but the sea and the mourning of my country."
"Despite being a pharmacist, she’ll know some wounds will never heal."
"I raise my head to get a good, long look at Syria."
"Remember what Am said? If you’re meant to be in Munich, you’ll be there, even if the whole world is against you."
"I’ve been given many names in countless languages. In yours, I’m Khawf. In English, Fear."
"Because you’re human. Because no matter what, you have a heart so soft it easily bruises. Because you feel."
"You’ve grown this past year, Salama. I’m rooting for you, you know."
"Remember how warm the bread used to be. Fresh from the bakery."
"Imagine painting our apartment blue like Layla’s painting."
"We reminisce on our old life. Visualizing our Syria and painting a description of one we’ll never see."
"Each lemon will bring forth a child, and the lemons will never die out."
"Daily, I scour Facebook and Twitter pages... I look for Hamza’s name until my eyes cross, but he never shows up."
"We weave distractions between the bouts of agony. Reminding the other we’re still here."
"Lemons take time, Kenan. We’re growing a tree. They need patience, just like change does."