Hold Tight, Don't Let Go Quotes

“The worst feeling was poor. Because in Haiti, so many people are poor, it's nothing to be ashamed of. And there's always a way to degaje, to get by, even when you have nothing. But misery in the United States is harder than misery in Haiti. You feel like it's your fault for being poor. And if you don't have any money, you can't eat. You won't have a house. If you fall, there's nowhere to go and no one to catch you. Everyone back in Haiti assumes that once you've arrived lòt bò, that it's a good life, that you're living well. And it feels so shameful to tell anyone that it's not true.”
― Laura Rose Wagner, Hold Tight, Don't Let Go

“The music is happy; the laughter is happy. Everything feels ecstatic and desperate. Blurrily, I think of sex, and I think of death. I realize: Every moment of joyous celebration contains the seed of death.”
― Laura Rose Wagner, Hold Tight, Don't Let Go

“There will always be children whose parents love them so much, they'd give them away and let them go. In a just world, love could keep them all from sinking.”
― Laura Rose Wagner, Hold Tight, Don't Let Go

“Here's all I can promise you: that I'll try to be the hero of your one small life.”
― Laura Rose Wagner, Hold Tight, Don't Let Go

“I just need a chance to gather up my wishes, to write my own ending, in which everything is the way it’s supposed to be.”
― Laura Rose Wagner, Hold Tight, Don't Let Go: A Novel of Haiti

“Now I know that there is nothing on this earth that cannot be ground to dust in seconds.Now I kow I can't control anything at all. Everything I know is gone,everything, everything but Nadine. My sister, the only real thing left-the sound of her voice, the warmth and shape of her near me at night. She is as much of me as I am.”
― Laura Rose Wagner, Hold Tight, Don't Let Go

“I could not hold on to Nadine. I cannot hold on to Safira. All I can do is hold everyone in my heart, the only place I know where I can keep them safe.”
― Laura Rose Wagner, Hold Tight, Don't Let Go: A Novel of Haiti