Does My Head Look Big In This? Quotes

“Belief means nothing without actions”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“Sometimes it's easy to lose faith in people. And sometimes one act of kindness is all it takes to give you hope again.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“Life isn’t like the movies. People don’t change overnight. people don’t go from arrogant and self-righteous to ashamed and remorseful. They don’t suddenly give in when they’ve spent years taking out. No doesn’t magically become a Yes.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“What’s the good of being true to your religion on the outside, if you don’t change what’s on the inside,were it really counts ?”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“I want to be with one person in my life. I want to know that the guy I spend the rest of my life with is the first person I share something so intimate and exciting with.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“That’s when this warm feeling buzzes through you and you smile to yourself, knowing God’s watching you, knowing that He knows you’re trying to be strong to please Him.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“Yeah, don't you take a break?'
'I don't have time for breaks.'
'That's the whole point of a break. When you've got no time, you need a break.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“Parents. Honestly. Sometimes they really do think the world revolves around them.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“Everything is relative. If you want to understand a problem you look at its cause. You don’t look at its manifestation.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“And it’s when I’m standing there this morning, in my PJs and a hijab, next to my mum and my dad, kneeling before God, that I feel a strange sense of calm. I feel like nothing can hurt me, and nothing else matters.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“there is more to this hijab than the whole modesty thing. These girls are strangers to me but I know that we all felt an amazing connection, a sense that this cloth binds us in some kind of universal sisterhood.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“Too many people look at it as though it (the hijab) has bizarre powers sewn into its microfibers. Powers that transform Muslim girls into UCOs (Unidentified Covered Objects), which turn Muslim girls from an 'us' to a 'them.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“It's like one of those scenes from a feel-good Hollywood movie. Where everybody is happy and nobody's hair fizzes in the wind. Where it doesn't rain, your shoes stay comfortable all day, and everybody's jokes are funny.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“همه این مدت با این فکر سر می کردم که پرهیزکار شدم,چون تصمیمی به سختی پوشیدن حجاب گرفته ام...اما چه فایده ای دارد که در ظاهر دین داری کنی,وقتی درونت را تغییر نداده باشی, آن هم وقتی که واقعا مهم است که این کار را بکنی? این مدت با خودم شوخی می کرده ام.پوشیدن حجاب آخر این سفر نیست. اول آن است.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big in This?

“Yes, Simone, he is mentally unstable for being attracted to you. call the men in white suits.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“You? Nervous? Man, you've got more balls than any girl I've ever known!'

'You've known some weird girls, then," I say, raising an eyebrow at him.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“Your perception is riveting, Amal," he says in a bored and sarcastic tone, dropping the note down on my desk. "It's comforting to know that there are people in my class who have the maturity and intelligence to make derogatory comments about other people's external appearances."

Now what am I supposed to say to that?

"What do you have to say for yourself?"

Friggin' mind reader.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“Are you still doing that crap?" I ask.

"You can't even do it properly," Eileen says.

"Just a matter of practice," Simone says.

"Wow! Practicing how to poison yourself and make your breath reek like the fart of a seagull!" Eileen cries.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“I just don't know what I'd do without a brain, Simone!" I say. "I mean, what's a person without one?”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“تا حالا نفهمیده بودم که حجاب چیزی بیشتر از پاکدامنی هم دارد. ...این لباس ما را در یک خواهری ِ جهانی به همدیگر پیوند می دهد.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“You know what? Who cares what normal is, Simone. Let's protest. From now on we're the anti-normal, anti-average, anti-standard. You can eat when you want to, I'll wear what I want, and we'll die with a packet of chips in our hand and a tablecloth on our head.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“ملحد بودن من یه سال طول کشید. به هر جهت غمگین بودم. احساس پوچی می کردم... بعد یه روز توی کالج شنیدم که یه دختر دانشجو کشته شده. برای من اصلاً قابل تصور نبود که اون غولی که جنازه اون دختر دانشجو رو کنار خیابون ول کرده، هیچ وقت قرار نباشه حساب پس بده. بی خدایی جواب نمی داد.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“می توانستیم نماز بخوانیم و روزه بگیریم و حجاب بپوشیم بدون اینکه جواب پس بدهیم و از خودمان در مقابل سرتیتر های خبری دفاع کنیم...با همدیگر زد و. خورد کنیم و بدون اینکه پیشوندی برای تروریسم و اکستریمیسم یا هر ایسم دیگری باشیم، سر غذا برویم”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big in This?

“[said from the main character to a friend as a suggestion for dealing with a weight-obsessed parent]:

"Why don't you just tell her that if she refuses to see the real you she should just go and legally adopt a celery stick and raise it as a carrot so that she can stay your of your life?”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“Sometimes it’s easy to lose faith in people. And sometimes one act of kindness is all it takes to give you hope again.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big in This?

“I’m sixty-seven years old. And, dear, in my sixty-seven years I’ve never let politics tell me how to treat people.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big in This?

“I can imagine that there's a lot of hate right now. If it ends up turning people against each other then I'm petrified; I'm sickened to think that we will allow those murderers to end up winning.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“My hand is cramping up as I go into a whirl writing out rebuttal points. I glance at the audience again and my eyes connect with Tia and for one second, one minuscule nanosecond, I detect we're on the same wavelength: she's also worried we'll lose. It's the only time we're connected together against another object - not each other.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“Not at all. I mean, yeah, you're weird by teenage standards. But weird in a good way. I mean, it's your life, your liver, your brain cells. It's weird not to respect choice. Whether you're choosing to get pissed or go sober, or get high on weed or chocolate, everybody's gotta make their own choices.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“But what's the good of being true to your religion on the outside, if you don't change what's on the inside, where it really counts?
I've been kidding myself. Putting on the hijab isn't the end of the journey. It's just the beginning of it.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?