Quotes from Burnt Shadows

“So many things you promise yourself you won't get used to, and then you do.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“How to explain to the earth that it was more functional as a vegetable patch than a flower garden, just as factories were more functional than schools and boys were more functional as weapons than as humans.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“If the greatest loss of his life is the loss of a dream he's always known to be a dream, then he's among the fortunate ones.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“The world won’t get more or less terrible if we’re indoors somewhere with a mug of hot chocolate,’ Kim said. ‘Though it’s possible it will seem slightly less terrible if there are marshmallows in the hot chocolate.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“Why didn’t you stay?’ she has whispered against the unyielding stone. Why didn’t you stay? She pressed the berry against her lips. Why didn’t I ask you just one more time to stay.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“....barriers made of metal could turn fluid when touched simultaneously by people on either side...”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“Sitting on the divan, she touched a finger to the bullet wound in his chest. It seemed so small, so incapable of creating the exodus of blood which had drenched his clothes and skin as he lay in the hospital, waiting for her to claim him. Death has been instantaneous, they said, as if there were a relief in that. She did not want death to have been instantaneous; she wanted to have at least held his hand as he lay dying and said goodbye to him in terms other than the, ‘Why are you doing again? You’ll find nothing. Stay. Oh all right, go,’ that had been her farewell to him that morning.

Stay. Stay. Stay. She should have repeated it like a madwoman, banged her head against the wall in a frenzy, hit him and wept. She should have said it just one more time, just a little more forcefully. She should have taken his dear, sweet head in her hands and kissed his eyes and forehead. Stay.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“بالنسبة الي هيروكو، أن تعرف يعني أن تُريد”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“There was little Hiroko Tanaka hadn’t learnt about the shameful resilience of the human heart.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“When the war's over, I'll be kind.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“Why have the English remained to English? Throughout India's history conquerors have come from elsewhere, and all of them --- Turk, Arab, Hun, Mongol, Persian --- have become Indian. If --- when ---this Pakistan happens, those Muslims who leave Delhi, Lucknow and Hyderabad to go there, They will be leaving their homes. But when the English leave, they'll be going home.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“Why didn’t you stay?” she had whispered against the unyielding stone. Why didn’t you stay? She pressed the berry against her lips. Why didn’t I ask you just one more time to stay? Sajjad stood up quietly and walked over to her. “There is a phrase I have heard in English: to leave someone alone with their grief. Urdu has no equivalent phrase. It only understands the concept of gathering around and becoming ‘ghum-khaur’—grief-eaters—who take in the mourner’s sorrow.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“The world won't get more or less terrible if we're indoors somewhere with a mug of hot chocolate.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“Yes, I know everything can disappear in a flash of light. That doesn’t make anything less valuable.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“I’ll read to you,” Elizabeth said. “Any preferences?” “Evelyn Waugh.” “Really? How strange.” “That’s what Konrad said. He said Waugh is for readers who know the English and understand what’s being satirised. And I told him that maybe the books are better when you don’t know it’s satire and just think it’s comedy.” Elizabeth considered this. “You’re probably right. I find him much too cruel. And almost unbearably sad.” Hiroko’s”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“I've lived through Hitler, Stalin, the Cold War, the British Empire, segregation, apartheid, God knows what. The world will survive this, and with just a tiny bit of luck so will everyone you love.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“Ghum-khaur: devorador-de-mágoas, aquele que absorve o desgosto do enlutado.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“Kun ihminen on yhdeksänkymmentäyksi, parasta mitä uskaltaa toivoa on se, että olisi hyvin säilynyt. Mikä tarkoittaa, että näyttää säilykkeeltä.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“...and i will step out of the mirage, into your arms, to lose myself and find myself inside you.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

“Konrad had been right to say barriers were made of metal that could turn fluid when touched simultaneously by people on either side.”
― Kamila Shamsie, quote from Burnt Shadows

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“Karsa shrugged. ‘The Malazan soldiers in Genabaris said the Seven Cities was going to rebel against their occupiers. This is why the Teblor do not make conquests. Better that the enemy keeps its land, so that we may raid again and again.’

‘Not the imperial way,’ the Daru responded, shaking his head. ‘Possession and control, the two are like insatiable hungers for some people. Oh, no doubt the Malazans have thought up countless justifications for their wars of expansion. It’s well known that Seven Cities was a rat’s warren of feuds and civil wars, leaving most of the population suffering and miserable and starving under the heels of fat warlords and corrupt priest-kings. And that, with the Malazan conquest, the thugs ended up spiked to the city walls or on the run. And the wilder tribes no longer sweep down out of the hills to deliver mayhem on their more civilized kin. And the tyranny of the priesthoods was shattered, putting an end to human sacrifice and extortion. And of course the merchants have never been richer, or safer on these roads. So, all in all, this land is rife for rebellion.”
― Steven Erikson, quote from House of Chains

“But it would be pretty weird being married and living separately, don't you think?"

"Married?" she practically screeched, not sounding all that pleased, which left him feeling a little offended. "We're not getting married."

He snorted at that. "I may have let you have your naughty little way with me for the past couple of months, but that doesn't mean I'm going to allow you to keep treating me like some dirty little boy toy. If you want to live with me then I expect you to put a ring on my finger," he said, holding up his left hand and wiggling his ring finger to punctuate his words.

"Naught little...," she mumbled, shaking her head in disbelief as she tightened her hold on her towel and dropped into an overstuffed chair. "Oh my god, you really are insane."

"Probably," he said with a shrug, "but don't worry I doubt it's hereditary so the baby should be fine.”
― R.L. Mathewson, quote from Perfection

“These girls with old gents don't do it despite the age—they're drawn to the age, they do it for the age. Why? In Consuela's case, because the vast difference in age gives her permission to submit, I think. My age and my
status give her, rationally, the license to surrender, and surrendering in bed is a not unpleasant sensation. But simultaneously, to give yourself over intimately to a much, much older man provides this sort of younger woman with authority of a kind she cannot get in a sexual arrangement with a younger man. She gets both the pleasures of submission and the pleasures of mastery.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“you guys all suck you know that?" Meagan shouted, flinging open the door of the shed.
Finn dropped his paintbrush on the leg of his jeans where it left a streak of orange before hitting the dirty floor.
"sorry?" he said.
"you!you suck!" Meagan fumed.
"we've been over this. I know I suck."
"not your art.you!you...guys" Meagan shouted.”
― quote from Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys

“You come up and read books?” asked Gregor. “Read them, eat them, whatever mood strikes me,”
― Suzanne Collins, quote from Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane

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