My Name Is Why Quotes

“Memories in care are slippery because there’s no one to recall them with as the years pass. In a few months I would be in a different home with a different set of people who had no idea of this moment. How could it matter if no one recalls it? Given that staff don’t take photographs it was impossible to take something away as a memory. This is how you become invisible. It isn’t the lack of photographs that erodes the memory. It is the underlying unkindnesses, which make you feel as though you don’t matter enough. This is how to quietly deplete the sense of self-worth deep inside a child’s psyche. This is how a child becomes hidden in plain sight. Family is just a set of memories disputed, resolved or recalled between one group of people over a lifetime, isn’t it? And if there is no one to care enough to dispute, resolve or recall the memory, then did it happen?”
― Lemn Sissay, My Name Is Why

“I am not defined by darkness Confided the night Each dawn I am reminded I am defined by light”
― Lemn Sissay, My Name Is Why

“Look what was sown by the stars At night across the fields I am not defined by scars But by the incredible ability to heal”
― Lemn Sissay, My Name Is Why

“Secrets are the stones
That sink the boat
Take them out, look at them
Throw them out and float”
― Lemn Sissay, My Name Is Why

“A fourteen-year-old boy should never have to ask the questions Who is my mother? and Who are my family? These were not easy questions to formulate in the mind or the mouth because the question comes with others . . . What did I do to deserve this?”
― Lemn Sissay, My Name Is Why

“Bitterness rots the vessel that carries it.”
― Lemn Sissay, My Name Is Why

“Hurt people hurt people.”
― Lemn Sissay , My Name Is Why

“My name is Lemn Sissay. My name is Lemn Sissay. My name is Lemn Sissay. My name is Lemn Sissay. My name is Lemn Sissay. My name is Lemn Sissay. My name is Lemn Sissay. My name is Lemn Sissay. My name is Lemn Sissay. My name is Lemn Sissay.”
― Lemn Sissay, My Name Is Why

“If they kept their hands by their sides they hoped that I would realise that I was hugging them but they were not hugging me.”
― Lemn Sissay, My Name Is Why

“Memories in care are slippery because there's no one to recall them with as the years pass. In a few months, I would be in a different home with a different set of people who had no idea of this moment. How could it matter if no one recalls it? Given that staff don't take photographs it was impossible to take something away as a memory. This is how you become invisible. It isn't the lack of photographs that erodes the memory. It is the underlying unkindnesses, which make you feel as though you don't matter enough. This is how to quietly deplete the sense of self-worth deep inside a child's psyche. This is how a child becomes hidden in plain sight. Family is just a set of memories disputed, resolved, or recalled between one group of people over a lifetime, isn't it? And if there is no one to care enough to dispute, resolve or recall the memory, then did it happen?”
― Lemn Sissay, My Name Is Why

“A foster child will expose the cracks in the familial veneer. Insomuch as the foster child is a cipher to the dysfunction of a family and also a seer. But the responsibility is too great for a child and so he finds himself manipulated and blamed for what he exposes by the simple virtue of innocence. The wrath this innocence incurs is deep and dark.”
― Lemn Sissay, My Name Is Why