Against The Loveless World Quotes
"Light comes through the small glass-block window high on the wall, reached only by the many-legged crawling creatures that also reside here."
"Abandoning the imposition of a calendar helped me understand that time isn’t real; it has no logic in the absence of hope or anticipation."
"Nearly all of my visitors are white... In summer and spring, the sun glows from their skin. They breathe easily and carry the spirit of bloom."
"I appreciated that she brought an interpreter with her—a young Palestinian woman from Nazareth."
"You think prostitution has to do with sexuality?"
"Eastern dance... is the antithesis of control. It’s about relinquishing power over one’s body, bestowing autonomy on every bone, ligament, nerve, and muscle fiber."
"I never told anyone, until I met Bilal, that I beat up Gameela precisely to get suspended in advance of national school testing."
"For a while, I tried to do better and let my little brother tutor me. But once a school believes you’re stupid, no amount of good work will convince them otherwise."
"Palestinians who had been chased out of their homes... found a place in Kuwait."
"I was seventeen when I first met Mhammad... I thought we would go right to sleep, but Mhammad insisted we finish off the night with what little was left of his own contraband liquor stash."
"Your family is well. They send their love. We are still fighting to get them a chance to visit. Eat this note."
"I was an abandoned bride when I was barely twenty. I hadn’t even had a proper wedding."
"God didn’t make us just to have babies and serve the needs of men while they run around and do whatever they want."
"I’ve always been good at stuff like that, and having a job made me feel like a modern woman."
"I made up a tale about twisting my arm, until I needed Mama’s help getting dressed for work one morning and she saw my bandage."
"Don’t get me wrong. Money is money, but not at any price. That man is crazy."
"That’s what Um Buraq did that day. She said she wouldn’t ever call me again."
"There were codes of honor among degenerates."
"You have always been normal, girl. Normal isn’t what other people do. You make your own normal."
"When you don’t react predictably, it throws people off, hopefully long enough for you to get the upper hand."
"It is difficult now to admit that I thought this a reasonable thing to want."
"May God bless you, my daughter. You are worth more than all the gold in the world."
"We are not friends, and this is not a secret-sharing session."
"I wasn’t upset with Sabah for confronting me with my reputation."
"I kept my promise and made regular calls to her in Jordan."
"I heard that the Americans are lining up tanks on the Saudi border."
"God bless you and bring you love and happiness."
"You never know who you can really trust in this world."
"I don’t mind tatreez. It gives me something to do. Makes me feel useful."
"I’ll give you the money from your account. But what’s in it for me?"
"I will carry his broken dreams for the rest of my life."
"We are unwanted in the world. It couldn’t hurt for us to have another option, even if we don’t use it."
"Trust me, Nahr. We should really try to get residency cards."
"The seduction of sleep was potent, but I managed to crawl my way through each day."
"I never thought I’d see the day," Sitti Wasfiyeh said, tearing up.
"Everything is a problem for you. What’s wrong with getting married again? Being normal?"
"I didn’t realize you thought I was abnormal or vicious."
"Why does everybody walk away from me when I say something is wrong with this family?"
The world was open." She stared a bit more. "If only we knew then.
"They’re breaking our fighters. If ever there was a symbol of what those Zionist dogs, sons of sixty dogs, are doing to us…"
"I never thought there would come a day when women could just sit in outdoor cafés and smoke like the men."
"I know there’s nothing I can say to convince you to stay, but I want nothing more."
"You, more than any of us, are a revolutionary, and the irony is that you don’t even see it."
"My body reacted separately from my thoughts. It went limp of its own volition, relieved to hear what it already knew."
"I had been confused by Jamil’s tears, the man I’d thought was simply Mhammad’s dear friend in Kuwait. But my body knew."
"Mhammad had used me. He had robbed me. He was my first rapist, not the man on the beach."
"Bilal called me habibti. 'Of course. I’ll always be okay,' I said."
"God, I’m trying to tell you something personal, but it all comes out like a political lecture."
"I slipped my hand into his, squeezing it gently. We had held hands before, but this felt physically and emotionally intimate."
"Most of us wanted to join the PLO. It was all we talked about. It made us feel like real men."
"I collapsed crying, but I couldn’t tell them what had happened. I wasn’t even sure myself."
"A mother’s dua’as are precious to God’s ears."
"I could make the same call, but they wouldn’t respond."
"I’m not going to push it. But you are wanted, loved, and valued here."
"I tried again, only I shat in it that time, but it still wouldn’t flush."
"The first time I felt the sun on my skin, I thought I would sell my soul to feel it again."
"How money has softened the hearts of your aunts!"
"I’m just praying for you to get a husband. I don’t know if it’s even possible anymore at your age."
"I’m quite fond of my lungs and don’t appreciate everyone polluting them for me."
"You think resistance against a colonizing military occupation is like dancing?"
"We do what we can to fight them, and endure the consequences, whatever and however heavy they may be."
"The early morning was still dark and cool. I was glad for my sweater."
"Our eyes locked as we listened to things breaking inside."
"Daylight slowly washed out the moon and stars as more soldiers appeared walking up the pathway."
"Bilal gave a scornful laugh. 'Well, well! Look who’s here! To what do we owe the honor, Commander?'"
"The commander turned to me, contemplating my face."
"The sun was up by the time the Israelis left, taking Bilal with them."
"Jumana and I fetched Hajjeh Um Mhammad’s heart and blood pressure pills and made her a small breakfast, which she refused to eat."
"She alternated between curses and entreaties to God to strike Israelis down, to bring the wicked to their knees, as all oppressors must be punished and the victims avenged."
"We refolded and organized scattered clothes, gathered spilled foods, salvaged what we could of the rice flung across the kitchen floor, vacuumed the sugar and flour off the furniture and wiped it off the walls."
"The tenacity of heartache can take a toll on the body."
"Praise and gratitude to you, Almighty. Praise Him!" she sang, laughing and crying at the same time.
"Make sure you look for meat that has a lighter pink color. Red meat is too rough and won’t be as tender when I cook it."
"She pinched turmeric and sprinkled it onto the white sauce."
"I heard him whisper to Jumana, 'Ghassan sends his love.'"
"To act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger."
"The ability to become vacuous was a skill I had honed over years."
"I could do no more than wash the day from my body."
"To remain in one place meant tearing one’s limbs from another."
"May God brighten your days and clear your path of wickedness, my daughter."
"The streets shook with mourning the next day as large crowds carried the body of the slain boy to his burial."
"The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them."
"You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a nigger."
"And of His wisdom is that He created for you from yourselves mates that you may find tranquility in them; and He placed between you affection and mercy."
"There is no reason for you to try to become like white people."
"May God look upon you with favor, my son."
"I cursed your gray hairs, woman! Stop rushing me!"
"I have to work hard to get thighs and an ass this big."
"It was hard not to become numb to the violence and those sadistic numbers."
"Phthalate anhydride is an inert and harmless compound."
"We ate so much ice cream that night we skipped dinner."
"I could not exist in a constant state of outrage and mourning."
"When you can't leave the house and there's little food or water, fucking is all there is."
"You are a sick and cruel man from a sick and cruel society."
"I am writing a feature on the exchange."