Rootless Quotes

“I can love her and still want something more for my life. Love and regret are mutually exclusive.”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“I just”—she hesitates—“I couldn’t go back to the beginning. I couldn’t let myself get stuck again.” Sam is beginning to understand, but it still stings him, how easily she says this, how easily she’s carried on without them. “Is that how we made you feel, then? Stuck? Like we trapped you? I trapped you?” “I’m just saying I always came last. I gave up my career, my body, five years of my life. I saw a glimpse at something close to happiness and I took it.”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“I wonder why we do that?
Do what?
Measure a woman's strength by the amount she is able to endure.”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“People - even the ones who love you - can be a weight around your neck. You just have to choose which weights you want to carry.”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“They kiss. Gentle and unsure at first, Sam shutting down the part of his mind telling him to stop. He feels Abbey shift, certain she’s about to pull away, but she doesn’t, and a few seconds later he feels her fingers at the nape of his neck—so light he could be imagining it—then the bloom of salted caramel as her tongue makes its way into his mouth. For a moment he thinks This could be enough.”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“Pastor clears his throat, then tries a new tactic. ‘And where is the child?’ ‘She’s with her father.’ ‘A child’s place is with the mother.’ ‘And you say that from all your years of child-raising? How is your marriage, Pastor?”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“But even Efe is astounded by just how easily Phoebe’s let her back in – Ken too – as if twenty-three years of absence could be wiped away overnight.”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“It takes a village to raise a child. This country doesn’t have the proper support system you need.’ Maame draws her attention back to Sam. ‘Do you even know your neighbours?”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“It is hard too. No one is saying otherwise. We all know there is lots of sacrifice. But when your time comes, you’ll see that it’s also your job as a woman to be miserable so your child can be happy.”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“You don’t get to break up with your girlfriend and claim me. I’m not some trophy or prize.”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“A shopkeeper?’ one of them asks. ‘All this your learning to be a shopkeeper?”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“They’d been teenagers in a band when they’d had him, but whenever Sam thinks of university, he imagines a place where anything is possible; a place filled with thousands of people just like him. Another step forward in life. And at the end of it all he’d be doing important work and helping people, maybe with a family of his own one day.”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“I can’t cut off every girl who has a thing for me just because Abbey hates them. That’s basically the whole school,’ he says, grinning.”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“Phoebe shakes her head. ‘Who does that? Who books a flight and leaves?”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“You think we didn’t fight for you and pray for you every day? Every moment of every day, Efe. You are so ungrateful!”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“Being a parent is hard. Not everyone knows how to do it. I was barely nineteen when I had you. Can you imagine being a parent at nineteen? Suddenly you’re in your thirties with two kids, wondering when your whole life passed you by.”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“Just as she nears King of Kings Confectionery and The Lord Most High Reigns Hair Braiders, Boutique and Salon, the scent of ixora rises to greet her.”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“Sam doesn’t want to do this now, not when he’s traveled almost ten thousand miles in less than two days, the plane cutting through the pink underbellies of clouds into a burning red sky. Not when he hasn’t slept and has been wearing the same clothes for thirty-nine hours straight. Not when he’s maxed out their credit card with the visa expenses and last-minute flights. Not when the burden of all he’s learned in the last sixteen hours bears down on him and everything he loves sits in broken shards at his feet.”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“Take me to the airport,” Sam says. An uncomfortable look spreads itself over Bro Caleb’s face. He looks from Sam to Efe and back again. “The madam?” “She’s not coming,” Sam says and grimaces.”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“But when your time comes, you’ll see that it’s also your job as a woman to be miserable so your child can be happy.”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless

“Marriage is like a groundnut. You have to crack it to see what is inside. —Ghanaian proverb”
― Krystle Zara Appiah, Rootless