The Queue Quotes

“Politics had eaten away at people’s heads until they in turn had begun to devour one another.”
― Basma Abdel Aziz, The Queue

“Yehya would never admit that he was just a single, powerless man in a society where rules and restrictions were stronger than everything else, stronger than the ruler himself, stronger than the Booth and even the Gate.”
― Basma Abdel Aziz, The Queue

“Despite how often the Gate released these promising updates, it still had never reopened, and nothing ever really changed. All it provided was hope for people to cling to and a reason to stay in the queue.”
― Basma Abdel Aziz, The Queue

“The queue was like a magnet. It drew people toward it, then held them captive as individuals and in their little groups, and it stripped them of everything, even the sense that their previous lives had been stolen from them.”
― Basma Abdel Aziz, The Queue

“No section of society was missing, even the poorest of the poor were there, not separated from the rich by any means. Everyone was on equal ground. But they all had the same look about them, the same lethargy. Now they were even all starting to think the same way.”
― Basma Abdel Aziz, The Queue

“The remedy to poverty was to bow down and pray and to stop her grousing and complaining.”
― Basma Abdel Aziz, The Queue

“The Gate had come into power many years earlier, in the wake of a popular uprising known as the First Storm.”
― Basma Abdel Aziz, The Queue

“Yehya would never admit that he was just a single, powerless man in a society where rules and restrictions were stronger than everything else, stronger than the ruler himself, stronger”
― Basma Abdel Aziz, The Queue