Laughing Without an Accent Quotes

“Ever since we had arrived in the United States, my classmates kept asking me about magic carpets.
- They don't exist-I always said. I was wrong. Magic carpets do exist. But they are called library cards.”
― Firoozeh Dumas, Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad

“The bible is foreign to me, but its concepts are not. My father always said that hatred is a waste and never an option. He learned this growing up in Ahwaz, Iran, in a Muslim household. I have tried my best to pass the same message to my children, born and raised in the United States. Ultimately, it doesn't matter where we learn that lesson. It's just important that we do.”
― Firoozeh Dumas, Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad

“. . . to deny someone an education is not just a crime but a sin, because you are denying that person the opportunity to realize who he or she is meant to be.”
― Firoozeh Dumas, Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen

“The Japanese have a saying that for every new food we try, we gain seven days of life. I may be immortal by now.”
― Firoozeh Dumas, Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad

“They have never heard of Lindsay Lohan. They are blessed.”
― Firoozeh Dumas, Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad

“I will never understand why most schools in America celebrate Halloween, effectively losing an entire day of education to prepare kids for collecting candy.”
― Firoozeh Dumas, Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen

“I also said that in my next life, I wanted to be Swedish. In Islam, the censor said, there is no next life. There is only one life. I hope that in my next life, I do not have to deal with censors.”
― Firoozeh Dumas, Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen

“Here, those kids are called nerds and geeks and dorks. This may be the only country where people make fun of the smart kids. Now that’s stupid. I only hope that the engineer who built the bridge I drive across or the nurse who administers our vaccines or the teacher who teaches my kids was a total nerd.”
― Firoozeh Dumas, Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen

“Most immigrants agree that at some point, we become permanent foreigners, belonging neither here nor there. Many tomes have been written trying to describe this feeling of floating between worlds but never fully landing. Artists, using every known medium from words to film to Popsicle sticks, have attempted to encapsulate the struggle of trying to hang on to the solid ground of our mother culture and realizing that we are merely in a pond balancing on a lily pad with a big kid about to belly-flop right in. If and when we fall into this pond, will we be singularly American or will we hyphenate? Can we hold on to anything or does our past just end up at the bottom of the pond, waiting to be discovered by future generations?”
― Firoozeh Dumas, Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad