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Bullets in Envelopes: Iraqi Academics in Exile QUOTES

Bullets in Envelopes: Iraqi Academics in Exile QUOTES

21 " I thought how artists, writers, and thinkers who are genuinely and strongly connected to their time, place, and peoples always sense disasters before they befall. They are not magicians with crystal balls. They simply use their other well-trained senses, beyond the five senses, to feel the upcoming earthquake, to sense the eruption of the upcoming volcanos, the approaching hurricanes. They signal what they sense in their works, while many people don’t take their warnings seriously. "

― Louis Yako , Bullets in Envelopes: Iraqi Academics in Exile

22 " I was horrified about how to ever put the first line on the paper to tell this story, let alone finish telling it. I confess that I hate finishing stories. Stories should never end.
The book is over, but the battle for a decent life and a more tolerable world is not. The book is over, but I hope that the stories of my interlocutors will start a new dialogue, a new language, and a new way of looking at things. I hope this work will make many other works possible. So, now that this work is finished, I hope that its life shall begin. "

― Louis Yako , Bullets in Envelopes: Iraqi Academics in Exile

23 " The journey of this book started as a project to tell the story of exiled and displaced Iraqi academics in post-occupation Iraq. As I finished writing it, I found that, in telling their stories, these academics ended up telling a very important story about Iraq itself. With their firsthand, intelligent, and analytical voices, I find the testimonies captured in this book indispensable for understanding the effects of the U.S. occupation on Iraq. Moreover, these testimonies speak volumes about why what was done to Iraq should never happen again in another country. "

― Louis Yako , Bullets in Envelopes: Iraqi Academics in Exile

24 " It occurred to me that there are some striking similarities between God and exiled people. Like these people, God has often been a political and a politicized figure in history. Like exiled people, God’s power lies in his existence everywhere and nowhere. That is how many exiled people feel. They have a multiple existence, but multiple existence can also be akin to nonexistence. God, therefore, is the ultimate expression of exile. God, if exists, should understand the meaning of exile more than anyone else. "

― Louis Yako , Bullets in Envelopes: Iraqi Academics in Exile

25 " We need to plant fields of flowers not mines for each other... "

― Louis Yako , Bullets in Envelopes: Iraqi Academics in Exile