A Book of My Own Quotes

“We write to express what we cannot speak. We write to liberate all that has been blocked, cloistered within us, imprisoned in an invisible jail. There is no better confidante than the white page to which, in the silence, we entrust our words.”
― Scholastique Mukasonga, A Book of My Own

“My mother, like all my family condemned to exile, always saved two mats for the unexpected traveler who might ask for refuge. May each of us always have a mat to welcome the stranger.”
― Scholastique Mukasonga, A Book of My Own

“The land where the exiles wind up is no longer the land they were promised, they will remain foreigners there for a long time, eaten up with nostalgia, and even if they manage to integrate, to construct a new life, they will sigh, like Odysseus, who would find his Ithica again: 'What good is the most luxurious home when you're among strangers and far from family?”
― Scholastique Mukasonga, A Book of My Own