Inside Out & Back Again Quotes

“Oh, my daughter,
at times you have to fight,
but preferably
not with your fists.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“Mother says,
People share
when they know they have escaped hunger.

Shouldn't people share
because there is hunger?”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“This year I hope
I truly learn
to fly-kick
not to kick anyone
so much as
to fly.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“Whoever invented English
should have learned
to spell.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“People living on others' goodwill cannot afford political opinions.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“Mother tells me,
They tease you
because they adore you.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“How can we scramble away like rats, without honor, without dignity, when everyone must help rebuild the country?”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“Paperwork, paperwork with a woman who pats my head while shaking her own. I step back, hating pity, having learned from Mother that the pity giver feels better, never the pity receiver.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“Everyone knows the ship could sink, unable to hold the piles of bodies that keep crawling on like raging ants from a disrupted nest. But no one is heartless enough to say stop because what if they had been stopped before their turn?”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“Mother warns
how we act today
foretells the whole year”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“I step back,
hating pity,

having learned
from Mother that
the pity giver
feels better,
never the pity receiver.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“Our lives
will twist and twist,
intermingling the old and the new
until it doesn't matter
which is which.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“Why no s for two deer,
but an s for two monkeys?

Brother Quang says
no one knows.

So much for rules!

Whoever invented English should be bitten by a snake.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“No, Mr. Johnston doesn't have a horse, nor has he ever ridden one. What kind of a cowboy is he?”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“She was promised to Father at five. They married at sixteen, earlier than expected. Everyone’s future changed upon learning the name H Chí Minh.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“I’m practicing
to be seen.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“We glide and I feel as if I'm floating.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“Mostly, I wish I were still smart.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“Black seeds spill like clusters of eyes, wet and crying.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“Mostly I wish I were still smart.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“best”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“Oh, my daughter, at times you have to fight, but preferably not with your fists.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“We must consider the shame of abandoning our own country and begging toward the unknown where we will all begin again at the lowest level on the social scale.”
― Thanhhà Lại, Inside Out & Back Again

“People living on
others' goodwill
cannot afford
political opinion.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“We pretend
the monsoon
has come early.

In the distance
bombs
explode like thunder,
slashes
lighten the sky,
gunfire
falls like rain.

Distant
yet within ears,
within eyes.

Not that far away
after all.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“I’m practicing to be seen.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“Whoever invented English should have learned to spell.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“...every language has annoyances and illogical rules, as well as sensible beauty.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“Some verbs
switch all over
just because.

I am
She is
They are
He was
They were

Would be simpler
if English
and live
were logical.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

“I can't make my brothers
go live elsehwere,
but I can
hide their sandals.”
― Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again