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21 " He was making her feel small and absurdly petulant and, worse yet, she suspected he was right. She always suspected he was right. For a brief irrational moment, she wished she could walk away from him. Then she wished, more rationally, that she could love him without needing him. Need gave him power without his trying; need was the choicelessness she often felt around him. "
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie , Half of a Yellow Sun
22 " Why do I love him?...I don't think love has a reason...I think love comes first and then the reasons follow. "
23 " There's something very lazy about the way you have loved him blindly for so long without ever criticizing him. You've never even accepted that the man is ugly,' Kainene said. There was a small smile on her face and then she was laughing, and Olanna could not help but laugh too, because it was not what she had wanted to hear and because hearing it had made her feel better. "
24 " Death would be a complete knowingness, but what frightened him was this: not knowing beforehand what it was he would know. "
25 " There was something wrong with her. She did not know what it was but there was something wrong with her. A hunger, a restlessness. An incomplete knowledge of herself. The sense of something farther away, beyond her reach. "
26 " How can we resist exploitation if we don’t have the tools to understand exploitation? "
27 " Grief was the celebration of love, those who could feel real grief were lucky to have loved. "
28 " There are two answers to the things they will teach you about our land: the real answer and the answer you give in school to pass. You must read books and learn both answers. "
29 " Red was the blood of the siblings massacred in the North, black was for mourning them, green was for the prosperity Biafra would have, and, finally, the half of a yellow sun stood for the glorious future. "
30 " I knew what I wanted to run to. But it didn’t exist, so I didn’t leave. "
31 " هل الحبّ هو هذا الاحتياج المُضلل لأن تكونَ إلى جواري معظم الوقت؟ هل الحبّ هو هذا الأمان الذي أشعرُ به أنا في صمتنا؟ "
32 " She was used to this, being grabbed by men who walked around in a cloud of cologne-drenched entitlement, with the presumption that, because they were powerful and found her beautiful, they belonged together. "
33 " He was not living his life; life was living him "
34 " Grandpapa used to say, about difficulties he had gone through, 'It did not kill me, it made me knowledgeable. "
35 " The more civilians you bomb, the more resistance you grow. "
36 " Yes, good. There’s something very lazy about the way you have loved him blindly for so long without ever criticizing him. You’ve never even accepted that the man is ugly,” Kainene said. There was a small smile on her face and then she was laughing, and Olanna could not help but laugh too, because it was not what she had wanted to hear and because hearing it had made her feel better. "
37 " Her bladder felt painfully, solidly full, as though it would burst and release not urine but the garbled prayers she was muttering. "
38 " Look at you. You're the kindest person I know. Look how beautiful you are. Why do you need so much outside of yourself? Why isn't what you are enough? "
39 " Perhaps he was not a true writer after all. He had read somewhere that, for true writers, nothing was more important than their art, not even love. "
40 " الأطفال العُراة يضحكون, كأنما الرجل لن يلتقط الصورة ثم بعد ذلك يتركهم وحدهم لمصيرهم "