Bitter Quotes

“The revolution needs artists, just like it needs healers and storytellers, just like it needs the organizers and protesters. It's all one big organism working together.”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“Leaders are dangerous. One person is weak; the people are strong.”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“Hope is not a waste of time. It's a discipline.”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“Miss Virtue looked amused. "How do you know your way is the right way?"
"I don't. But we moving with love, and I figure that can't be wrong.”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“Bitter had no interest in the revolution.
She was seventeen and she thought it was ridiculous that adults wanted young people to be the ones saving the world, as if her generation was the one that had broken everything in the first place. It wasn't her business. She was supposed to have had a childhood, a whole world waiting for her when she grew up, but instead kids her age were the ones on the front lines, the ones turned in to martyrs and symbols that the adults praised publicly but never listened to because their greed was always louder and it was easier to perform solidarity than to actually do the things needed for change. It didn't matter. None of it fucking mattered.”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“Aloe had sat next to her and taken her hand, a gesture she was recognizing as his way of reminding her that he was still there, that they were still connected”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“He raised his head as Bitter emerged from the office, and his face broke into a huge smile. It made the blood rush to Bitter's face, how openly Aloe showed his pleasure at her presence. Sometimes she wondered how he found the courage to flash emotions as if no one could hurt him with them.”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“You are allowed to feel safe, " Miss Virtue said. Bitter blinked, the tears heated her eyes because the words were so simple, yet so heavy with permission.”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“And hope is not a waste of time. Hope is discipline.”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“we still gotta live, even while we fighting”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“They will not give us our freedom, so we must take it!”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“In order to fight, we must know when to rest”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“the world gotta burn before we can build a new one. We just got different ideas about what kinda fire we need”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“There are no new worlds without sacrifice”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“All freedoms are terrible, that's the part they never tell you”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“Sometimes we have to trust that the ones we love will find their way back to us”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“I'll love you in any world”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“And hope is not a waste of time. Hope is a discipline.”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“The foster parents had said that she would end up nowhere, then you could make up wherever you wanted to be, you could make it real. You could, for example, paint it into existence.”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter

“No, she’s talking about Sunflower,” Aloe said. “She’s been in charge of their security for decades.” “Oh, she’s an Elder?” Both Aloe and Miss Bilphena made the same face, their noses scrunching up. “Sunflower doesn’t work within time like the rest of us,” Miss Bilphena said delicately. “Think of her as…ageless.” “Eddie once told me to think of her as a cyborg,” Aloe said, a small smile on his face. “Like she’s a person, a spirit, and tech all fused together. No one knows how she works, but she works. Keeps the safe house masked at all times, on all fronts.”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Bitter