Rowena Fortuin > Rowena's Quotes

“IT’S A TRUTH universally acknowledged that when rich people move into the hood, where it’s a little bit broken and a little bit forgotten, the first thing they want to do is clean it up. But it’s not just the junky stuff they’ll get rid of. People can be thrown away too, like last night’s trash left out on sidewalks or pushed to the edge of wherever all broken things go. What those rich people don’t always know is that broken and forgotten neighborhoods were first built out of love.”
― Ibi Zoboi, Pride

“We’re not gonna throw away the past as if it meant nothing. See? That’s what happens to whole neighborhoods. We built something, it was messy, but we’re not gonna throw it away.”
― Ibi Zoboi, Pride

“Because the thing about sharp corners is, the right turns can bring you back home.”
― Ibi Zoboi, Pride

“Every book is a different hood, a different country, a different world. Reading is how I visit places and people and ideas. And when something rings true or if I still have a question, I outline it with a bright yellow highlighter so that it’s lit up in my mind, like a lightbulb or a torch leading the way to somewhere new.”
― Ibi Zoboi, Pride

“warm summer breeze blows, and tiny bumps form on my arms. This is what Madrina calls grains of sugar adding sweetness to my soul; the first sparks of love and attraction, of something so new and tender that if I’m too firm with it, it will burst.”
― Ibi Zoboi, Pride

“They got married at a very, very young age. And thank los espíritus, as Madrina would say, that they at least liked each other. They more than liked each other, though. They are actually still in love. I know this because as we’re all yapping in the living room, Papi washes the dishes, cleans the kitchen, and comes back to offer Mama a glass of water while he takes her empty plate.”
― Ibi Zoboi, Pride

“Forgiveness is easy,' he says. 'It's just like a door. You open it and walk through.”
― Lisa Heathfield, Paper Butterflies

“I've learnt that if you're careful, you can hold a butterfly in your hand. And that even if it's been trapped, frightened, in a jar, it still has a chance to survive. Because a butterfly with a broken wing can still fly.”
― Lisa Heathfield, Paper Butterflies

“Some things in life can seem really tough...There are things that seem like a mountain and you can't find a way round it, yet don't have the energy to go over it, either. You always find a way, though, eventually. Us humans are very strong underneath it all.”
― Lisa Heathfield, Paper Butterflies

“Suffering produces endurance,’ he reads. ‘And endurance produces character and character produces hope.’ I feel his hand gently on my back. ‘And hope does not put us to shame.”
― Lisa Heathfield, Paper Butterflies

“You can love someone deeply, but somehow not always do the right thing by them. People have flaws. We get so much wrong. Maybe if you try to understand him as a human being with faults then you can move forward.”
― Lisa Heathfield, Paper Butterflies

“It’s your choice, June. It’s your life and you get to choose your path. Carry your past down the difficult route, or take your past from your shoulders, leave it here and walk down the other road.”
― Lisa Heathfield, Paper Butterflies

“And if you face every day with hope, then you’ve already won,’ Mickey says.

Hope. Like a bird, it flies too high above me.

‘What if I don’t know what to hope for any more?’ I ask quietly.

Mickey takes my hand in hers. ‘Perhaps hope on its own is enough.”
― Lisa Heathfield, Paper Butterflies

“I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.”
― John Wayne "The Shootist"

“You're short on ears and long on mouth.”
― John Wayne