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The Shadow King QUOTES

The Shadow King QUOTES

21 " She did not understand until seeing Aster that there is a different kind of exposure, one that is indecent and upsetting. That some bodies were not meant to bend, and that this makes them weaker rather than stronger, unable to withstand what those like her can walk through their days locking into pockets and ignoring. "

― Maaza Mengiste , The Shadow King

22 " THEY MOVE WITH the effortless grace of an oncoming storm, a growing rumble in the morning light. "

― Maaza Mengiste , The Shadow King

23 " Then one day, weeks later, he stops her at the gate and gathers her in his arms and whispers into her ear: What is lost is gone, my child, what is lost makes room for something else. "

― Maaza Mengiste , The Shadow King

24 " Make living your act of defiance. Record it all. "

― Maaza Mengiste , The Shadow King

25 " SHE DOES NOT WANT TO REMEMBER BUT SHE IS HERE AND MEMORY IS gathering bones. "

― Maaza Mengiste , The Shadow King

26 " My father was always a stranger to me, he will say. I knew him through his questions, not his answers. "

― Maaza Mengiste , The Shadow King

27 " some memories should be barricaded by others, that those strong enough must hold the others at bay. "

― Maaza Mengiste , The Shadow King

28 " Some people are meant to be owners of things. Others, only to set them in their rightful place and clean them. "

― Maaza Mengiste , The Shadow King

29 " The blow comes as a relief to Hirut. It is something to do: to be hit. It is somewhere to go: to be in pain. "

― Maaza Mengiste , The Shadow King

30 " We all know that war destroys mankind, and in spite of their differences in race, creed, and religion, women all across the world despise war because its fruit is nothing but destruction. "

― Maaza Mengiste , The Shadow King

31 " He is doing as she once did, in the naïve belief that what is buried stays that way, that what is hidden will stay unseen, that what is yours will remain always in your possession. He is being foolish. "

― Maaza Mengiste , The Shadow King

32 " Every sun creates a shadow and not all are blest to stand in the light. We have returned, he tells himself. Minim looks down at his slender fingers, the nails still neatly filed and short. He glances down at his feet, and lays a hand on the beard he learned to trim as well as any royal barber. Every day, he will grow back into himself until he can be who he is: a man who was once everything to everyone, then was reborn again to be nothing. "

― Maaza Mengiste , The Shadow King

33 " She knows precisely that to take from one day gives nothing to the other. That what the left hand hides, the right does not necessarily reveal. That blood can conspire to give life and to take it, to murder and to bless, to confirm a woman’s place in the world every month, and deny it. "

― Maaza Mengiste , The Shadow King