Liz Hall

“Stories are funny things. Even the mere idea of fiction. Facts exist. But I see now that facts are different than truth. Facts are supposed to be indisputable, unbending (at least until science tells us we were wrong about everything), but even the true stories of who we think ourselves to be are kind of fiction we create.”
― Samira Ahmed, Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know

“She keeps saying that the facts are sacred. I keep saying that they're a tool -- that truth requires point of view, as well; it needs to be cobbled from facts.”
― Dina Nayeri, The Ungrateful Refugee

“Now I remember that at Iowa, a famous writer told us that we must taste life more than we write about it, that we shouldn't publish while in this preparatory bubble. When you're waiting for life to begin, you're prone to spectacle, to theater, and, as any asylum seeker who has looked into the cold eyes of an immigration officer knows, no one believes melodrama.”
― Dina Nayeri, The Ungrateful Refugee

“And thinking about it hypothetically doesn't change what you should do with your days. You must keep living. This is what I learned from her at Hotel Barba. You can't fall into the waiting space. You must find work, some small gear you can turn -- you must make something happen.”
― Dina Nayeri, The Ungrateful Refugee