10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

by Elif Shafak

For one thing, they assumed that you automatically became a wife or a husband the moment you said, ‘I do!’ But the truth was, it took years to learn how to be married.

roses were perfect, a mixture of sultry glamour and sharp thorns.

people always gave simple names to the complex things that frightened them.

‘What took you so long? Cry, my dear. Never be ashamed of your tears. Cry and everyone knows you’re alive.’

getting through life as unscathed as possible depended to a large extent on two fundamental principles: knowing the right time to arrive and knowing the right time to leave.

Little did she yet understand that the end of childhood comes not when a child’s body changes with puberty, but when her mind is finally able to see her life through the eyes of an outsider.

Bitter Ma had an excellent memory; she remembered every wrong that had ever been done to her, and when the right moment arrived, she took her revenge.