A Long Way Gone: Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier Quotes
"If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen."
"I pray to the gods and ancestors that my family will always be together."
"This war memoir haunts the heart long after the eyes have finished the final page."
"I would always tell people that I believe children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance."
"No one grumbles when the moon shines. Everyone becomes happy and appreciates the moon in their own special way."
"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."
"I thought about these words during my journey, and they kept me moving even when I didn’t know where I was going."
"Being in a group of six boys was not to our advantage. But we needed to stay together because we had a better chance of escaping the day-to-day troubles we faced."
"The more I resisted thinking, the longer the days became, and I felt as if my head was becoming heavier each passing day."
"Circumstances will change and things will be fine, just hold on a little more."
"Our innocence had been replaced by fear and we had become monsters."
"Sometimes we ran after people shouting that we were not what they thought, but this made them more scared."
"This country has lost its good heart. People don’t trust each other anymore."
"I hope that you boys can find safety before this untrustworthiness and fear cause someone to harm you."
"How many more times do we have to come to terms with death before we find safety?"
"Each time I accept death, part of me dies. Very soon I will completely die and all that will be left is my empty body walking with you."
"To survive each passing day was my goal in life."
"It was much easier to be sad than to go back and forth between emotions, and this gave me the determination I needed to keep moving."
"I was never disappointed, since I always expected the worst to happen."
"Those left behind became restless and started shooting civilians who were on their way to latrines at night."
"In the forest there are men waiting to destroy all of our lives."
"They won’t give up until they capture this village."
"If you do not want to fight or help, that is fine. But you will not have rations and will not stay in this village."
"This is your time to revenge the deaths of your families and to make sure more children do not lose their families."
"The rebels will kill anyone from this village because they will consider us their enemy."
"Leaving the village was as good as being dead."
"Everyone must gather at the square immediately."
"I am sorry to show you these gruesome bodies, especially with your children present."
"They have lost everything that makes them human. They do not deserve to live."
"It is the highest service you can perform for your country."
"The morning sun had disappeared and the day became gloomy."
"We have been fighting for over two years, and killing had become a daily activity."
"My childhood had gone by without my knowing, and it seemed as if my heart had frozen."
"I knew that day and night came and went because of the presence of the moon and the sun."
"I had my gun now, and as the corporal always said, 'This gun is your source of power in these times.'"
"My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be killed."
"Revenge is not good...revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end."
"I knew that a memory of my existence was alive somewhere in the world."
"The more I spoke about my experiences to Esther, the more I began to cringe at the gruesome details."
"Surviving the war...was not a matter of feeling trained or brave."
"We can be rehabilitated," I would emphasize, and point to myself as an example.
"Children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance."
"I hated the 'It is not your fault' line...but I began that day to believe it."
"In the sky there are always answers and explanations for everything: every pain, every suffering, joy, and confusion."
"Tears ran down my cheeks, and my eyeballs and eyelids felt heavy."
"Chances to escape death were better at night, because the red track of the bullets could be seen in the dark."
"Nightfall seemed so far away, it felt like waiting for Judgment Day."
"The gunshots didn’t cease for the next five months; they became the new sound of the city."
"Mothers wrapped their trembling arms around their children each time the gunshots intensified."
"I had to leave, because I was afraid that if I stayed in Freetown any longer, I was going to end up being a soldier again."
"The air smelled of rotten bodies and gunpowder."
"I couldn’t move from where I sat. My entire body had gone numb."
"I walked behind the coffin, the sound of my footsteps clinging to my heart."
"I was always losing everything that meant something to me."
"I had entered the country illegally, which I knew would later become a problem."
"I sighed and placed my hands on my head, then walked to a bench and sat down."
"The sight of all these people reminded me of a few villages I had passed through while running away from the war."