Nadia Hashimi > Quotes

“This life is difficult. We lose fathers, brothers, mothers, songbirds and pieces of ourselves. Whips strike the innocent, honors go to the guilty, and there is too much loneliness. I would be a fool to pray for my children to escape all of that. Ask for too much and it might actually turn out worse. But I can pray for small things, like fertile fields, a mother’s love, a child’s smile—a life that’s less bitter than sweet.”
― Nadia Hashimi, The Pearl that Broke Its Shell

“The human spirit, you know what they say about the human spirit? Is is harder than a rock and more delicate than a flower petal.”
― Nadia Hashimi, The Pearl That Broke Its Shell

“The hell with naseeb. Naseeb is what people blame for every thing they can't fix.”
― Nadia Hashimi, The Pearl That Broke Its Shell

“In the darkness, when you cannot see the ground under your feet and when your fingers touch nothing but night, you are not alone. I will stay with you as moonlight stays on water.”
― Nadia Hashimi, When the Moon is Low

“Refugees didn’t just escape a place. They had to escape a thousand memories until they’d put enough time and distance between them and their misery to wake to a better day.”
― Nadia Hashimi, When the Moon is Low

“Grief is nothing but the far brink of love. Love is the sun; grief is the shadow it casts. Love is an opera; grief is its echo. You cannot have one without the other. But if you follow that grief, you will find your way back to love.”
― Nadia Hashimi, Sparks Like Stars

“People who are beset by tragedy once and twice are sure to grieve again. Fate finds it easier to retrace its treads.”
― Nadia Hashimi, The Pearl That Broke Its Shell

“When things are rough, people look for an escape. A way out. Sometimes it's hard to find the right way.”
― Nadia Hashimi, The Pearl That Broke Its Shell

“Let people serve you information, but never let them serve you your opinion.”
― Nadia Hashimi, Sparks Like Stars

“Life has typhoons. They come and turn everything upside down. But you still have to standup because the next storm may be around the corner.”
― Nadia Hashimi, The Pearl That Broke Its Shell

“The person who doesn't appreciate the apple, doesn't appreciate the orchard.”
― Nadia Hashimi, The Pearl That Broke Its Shell

“Grudges don’t die—people do.”
― Nadia Hashimi, When the Moon Is Low

“Funny, isn't it? We hear the same name and while they see dark, I see light.”
― Nadia Hashimi, The Pearl That Broke Its Shell

“Love grows wildest in the gardens of hardship.”
― Nadia Hashimi, When the Moon Is Low

“Children always forgive their mothers. That's the way God's designed them. He gives them two arms, two legs, and a heart that will cry 'mother' until the day it stops beating.”
― Nadia Hashimi, A House Without Windows

“You know, we’re so damned afraid that talking about the ones we’ve lost will hurt us as much as losing them did. So we just stop talking about them. But that’s when we truly lose them.”
― Nadia Hashimi, Sparks Like Stars

“Some things are clearer from a distance.”
― Nadia Hashimi, When the Moon is Low

“It's never easy to leave one's home, especially when there are only closed doors ahead of you.”
― Nadia Hashimi, When the Moon is Low

“Poor girl. She ran out from under a leaking roof and sat in the rain.”
― Nadia Hashimi, The Pearl that Broke Its Shell

“Do as you must -- you are not a child. But understand that there are many people willing to make your life more difficult. It is up to you to find a way to make things easier for yourself.”
― Nadia Hashimi, The Pearl That Broke Its Shell

“I was pretty sure everyone was praying for different things. I wondered how Allah would sort it all out.”
― Nadia Hashimi, The Pearl That Broke Its Shell

“Only as an adult can a child imagine his parent as a whole person, as a husband, a brother, or a son. Only then can a child see how his parent fits into the world beyond four walls.”
― Nadia Hashimi, When the Moon Is Low

“But her personality made her glow. People looked at her and couldn’t help but smile.”
― Nadia Hashimi, The Pearl that Broke Its Shell

“He tried to work alongside his father as a carpenter but a man who had been taught only to destroy found it hard to create.”
― Nadia Hashimi, The Pearl that Broke Its Shell

“The human spirit, you know what they say about the human spirit? It is harder than a rock and more delicate than a flower petal.”
― Nadia Hashimi, The Pearl that Broke Its Shell

“We are too shortsighted to rejoice in the moments that deserve it.”
― Nadia Hashimi, When the Moon Is Low

“People are God’s cruelest creations. They’ll step on the smallest of backs to feel an inch taller.”
― Nadia Hashimi, Sparks Like Stars

“In residency, I studied in a bookstore’s coffee shop, which was where a clutch of women gathered monthly for book club. They would set their library books and blueberry scones on the table. I started eavesdropping and realized that the books they read were just an excuse to talk about their own lives. Every character, every broken heart, every twist of fate inspired a story about an unruly mother-in-law, a philandering father, or the cousin who came out to his unforgiving parents. Sometimes it sounded more like a therapy session than a book discussion. I could never join a book club.”
― Nadia Hashimi, Sparks Like Stars

“I had always been my father’s spirited girl, the child who had grown up in the halls of the palace. But the absence of my family made me reconsider who I was. If it hadn’t been for my father’s outstretched arms, perhaps I never would have dared to leap from the sofa cushions. If it hadn’t been for my mother’s applause, I might not have dared to dance in our living room. I only moved as boldly through the world as I had because I knew they would catch me, no matter how far I fell.”
― Nadia Hashimi, Sparks Like Stars

“She would be brave because her father had once told her that the world lived within her. That her bones were made of mountains. That rivers coursed through her veins. That her heartbeat was the sound of a thousand pounding hooves. That her eyes glittered with the light of a starry sky. I am that girl, and this is my story.”
― Nadia Hashimi, Sparks Like Stars