When We Were Sisters Quotes

“How terrible—to be an ordinary orphan. Not a superhero. Not a wizard in waiting. Not a prophet who goes to a cave. Just—ordinary. All that grief, wasted. All that fucking grief for nothing.”
― Fatimah Asghar, When We Were Sisters: A Novel

“Don't let the small things become the big things.”
― Fatimah Asghar, When We Were Sisters

“In this world we were born into nothing but everything is ours: the sidewalk, the yellow markers in the road. The rain falls through the leaves and kisses us just so. What no one will ever understand is that the world belongs to orphans, everything becomes our mother. We’re mothered by everything because we know how to look for the mothering, because we know a mother might leave us and we’ll need another mother to step in and take its place. The tree mothering its shade. The restaurant door, propped slightly open, mothering its smell of cookies to us. The blinking walk sign, holding on long enough to mother us across the street. The sun mothering Noreen, warming her skin; the sidewalk mothering Aisha’s knee, kissing it when her body hits the pavement, a love strong enough to leave a mark. The rain, mothering us faster home. The hallway birds, mothering their cages. The hamster, mothering its wheel. All the mothers in the world reach out to the motherless. And beneath me, Noreen was made to mother me, my heartbeat pounding against her back, shouting so loud that it fills my entire being, you’re held, you’re held, you’re held.”
― Fatimah Asghar, When We Were Sisters

“The secret to knowing the secret is to speak, but we too often tell the stories of no matter and avoid the one story that does matter.”
― Fatimah Asghar, When We Were Sisters: A Novel

“I am not alone because my life is so full with people, so full with books, so full with love and ideas that I can reach out and touch. I can’t be alone when every person in my life is a galaxy, a world on a world in themselves.”
― Fatimah Asghar, When We Were Sisters: A Novel

“My whole world brimming with thems, with the theys who touch me, with the theys who smile at me when I walk down the street, with the theys who promise to call me back and never do. I don't say much, but I fall in love with all of them.”
― Fatimah Asghar, When We Were Sisters

“Why is he still here? He has his own apartment down the street, Aisha says and I roll over, annoyed that there’s four people in a one-bedroom apartment. Annoyed that what separates us and him is a thin piece of fabric. Annoyed that our Uncle has so much space for himself and yet he still comes for ours.”
― Fatimah Asghar, When We Were Sisters: A Novel

“I push down, the soft crack of her back ripples. She laughs and it paints the room.”
― Fatimah Asghar, When We Were Sisters: A Novel

“My sisters-mothers are both on their own boats, in different seats. I'm waiting at the shore for them to come back. I don't know where my boat is, or where my sea is.”
― Fatimah Asghar, When We Were Sisters