Deborah Ellis > Quotes

“Nobody really owns anything. We give back our bodies at the end of our lives. We own our thoughts, but everything else is just borrowed. We use it for a while, then pass it on.
Everything.
We borrow the sun that shines on us today from the people on the other side of the world while they borrow the moon from us. Then we give it back. We can't keep the sun, no matter how afraid we are of the dark.”
― Deborah Ellis, No Ordinary Day

“She doesn't know where she is going. She doesn't know when the next demons will appear.
But she will keep on walking.
She will follow the moon.”
― Deborah Ellis, Moon at Nine

“it made her angry, and since she could do nothing with her anger, it made her sad.”
― Deborah Ellis, The Breadwinner

“These are unusual times. They call for ordinary people to do unusual things, just to get by.”
― Deborah Ellis, The Breadwinner

“I didn't create this world,” she said to herself. “I only have to live in it.”
― Deborah Ellis, Parvana's Journey

“Truth is always the most important thing, even when it leads us into dark places.”
― Deborah Ellis, Moon at Nine

“A lazy brain does no one any good.”
― Deborah Ellis, Parvana's Journey

“The path you are on is one you chose for yourself”
― Deborah Ellis, My Name Is Parvana

“Afghans love beautiful things, but we have seen so much ugliness, we sometimes forget how wonderful a thing like a flower is”
― Deborah Ellis, The Breadwinner

“To Kill a Mockingbird,” she said slowly. “What’s a mockingbird?” Asif asked. Parvana didn’t know. “It’s like a...a chicken,” she said. “This book is about killing chickens.”
― Deborah Ellis, Parvana’s Journey

“Grownups shouldn’t turn their backs on children.”
― Deborah Ellis, Parvana's Journey

“We have to remember this,” Parvana said. “When things get better and we grow up, we have to remember that there was a day when we were kids when we stood in a graveyard and dug up bones to sell so that our families could eat.”
― Deborah Ellis, The Breadwinner

“But first and most important, we are human beings with a right to choose for ourselves how we want to live. All we have is our lives. Each person gets just one. We owe our parents and the revolution our respect, but we don’t owe them everything. And everything is what they want.

I choose you, not just because you are wonderful and not just because you love me.

I choose you because the act of choosing you belongs to me. It is mine, my choice, my free will.

I choose you over my father. I choose you over my country.

And even if you decide you don’t want me, I still choose you.

Because in choosing you, I am choosing myself.”
― Deborah Ellis, Moon at Nine

“Life is dangerous, but we’re all brave, aren’t we?”
― Deborah Ellis, My Name Is Parvana

“We have to remember this,” Parvana said. “When things get better and we grow up, we have to remember that there was a day when we were kids when we stood in a graveyard and dug up bones to sell so that our families could eat."

"Will anyone believe us?"

"No. But we will know it happens”
― Deborah Ellis, The Breadwinner

“The people who hate us can’t see through the wall.,”
― Deborah Ellis, My Name Is Parvana

“The little girl's voice was thin with pain. “They were so pretty,” she said. And then she died.”
― Deborah Ellis, Parvana's Journey

“Grownups killing each other,”
― Deborah Ellis, Parvana’s Journey

“Even before you've gone anywhere, you feel like you've gone somewhere”
― Deborah Ellis, Looking for X

“The world is our classroom,” he always said,”
― Deborah Ellis, Parvana's Journey

“Tanks were normal. Bombs were normal. Why couldn’t eating be normal?”
― Deborah Ellis, Parvana's Journey

“All girls [should read] THE BREADWINNER by Deborah Ellis." ~ Malala Yousafzai”
― Deborah Ellis, The Breadwinner

“Already you are walking in the heat to get somewhere, but where can you go? There is nowhere but here. This street or that street, it is all the same. One day you will know this, and you will sit down and wait.”
― Deborah Ellis, Mud City

“Grandmother was gone. The house was gone. Green Valley was gone.”
― Deborah Ellis, Parvana’s Journey

“It was the 1990s, and the world was a mess.”
― Deborah Ellis, Click

“The part of me that’s me is gone. I’m just part of this line of people. There’s no me left. I’m nothing.”
― Deborah Ellis, Parvana’s Journey

“Nobody really owns anything. We give back our bodies at the end of our lives.We own our thoughts, but everything else is borrowed. Everything.”
― Deborah Ellis

“Like it or not, you need to know how to do this. Your future depends on it. You give up on this, you will give up on the next difficult thing, and you are too smart and too strong to start giving up.”
― Deborah Ellis, My Name Is Parvana

“Your brain needs exercise, just like your body,” he said. “A lazy brain does no one any good.”
― Deborah Ellis, Parvana's Journey

“Nobody really owns anything. We give back our bodies at the end of our lives. We own our thoughts, but everything else is just borrowed. We use it for a while, then pass it on.”
― Deborah Ellis, No Ordinary Day