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Binti (Binti, #1) QUOTES

Binti (Binti, #1) QUOTES

1 " I wanted to ask, 'Why did you let this happen?' but that was blasphemy. You never ask why. It was not a question for you to ask. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

2 " I swiped otjize from my forehead with my index finger and knelt down. Then I touched the finger to the sand, grounding the sweet smelling red clay into it. "Thank you," I whispered. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

3 " They were all girls who grew up in sprawling houses, who'd never walked through the desert, who'd never stepped on a snake in the dry grass. They were girls who could not stand the rays of the Earth's sun unless it was shining through a tinted window. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

4 " We prefer to explore the universe by traveling inward, as opposed to outward. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

5 " However, just because something isn’t surprising doesn’t mean it’s easy to deal with. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

6 " They say that when faced with a fight you cannot win, you can never predict what you will do next. But I'd always known I'd fight until I was killed. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

7 " My father didn’t believe in war. He said war was evil, but if it came he would revel in it like sand in a storm. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

8 " No matter what choice I made, I was never going to have a normal life, really. I looked around and immediately knew what to do next. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

9 " But deep down inside me, I wanted . . . I needed it. I couldn’t help but act on it. The urge was so strong that it was mathematical. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

10 " I believed I could only be great if I were curious enough to seek greatness. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

11 " I couldn’t see the end of the corridor, so I stared at the entrance. The ship was a magnificent piece of living technology. Third Fish was a Miri 12, a type of ship closely related to a shrimp. Miri 12s were stable calm creatures with natural exoskeletons that could withstand the harshness of space. They were genetically enhanced to grow three breathing chambers within their bodies. Scientists planted rapidly growing plants within these three enormous rooms that not only produced oxygen from the CO2 directed in from other parts of the ship, but also absorbed benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene. This was some of the most amazing technology I’d ever read about. Once settled on the ship, I was determined to convince someone to let me see one of these amazing rooms. But at the moment, I wasn’t thinking about the technology of the ship. I was on the threshold now, between home and my future. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

12 " Those women talked about me, the men probably did too. But none of them knew what I had, where I was going, who I was. Let them gossip and judge. Thankfully, they knew not to touch my hair again. I don’t like war either. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

13 " I frowned. They sounded like the same thing to me, gain and purpose. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

14 " Dedicated to the little blue jellyfish I saw swimming the Khalid Lagoon that sunny day in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

15 " He was always calling them evil, though he’d never traveled to a Khoush country or known a Khoush. His anger was rightful, but all that he said was from what he didn’t truly know. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

16 " Then there was Heru. I had never spoken to him, but we smiled across the table at each other during mealtimes. He was from one of those cities so far from mine that they seemed like a figment of my imagination, where there was snow and where men rode those enormous gray birds and the women could speak with those birds without moving their mouths. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

17 " Suicide is death on purpose! "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

18 " My tribe is obsessed with innovation and technology, but it is small, private, and, as I said, we don’t like to leave Earth. We prefer to explore the universe by traveling inward, as opposed to outward. No Himba has ever gone to Oomza Uni. So me being the only one on the ship was not that surprising. However, just because something isn’t surprising doesn’t mean it’s easy to deal with. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

19 " His anger was rightful, but all that he said was from what he didn’t truly know. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)

20 " I am Binti Ekeopara Zuzu Dambu Kaipka of Namib,” I whispered. "

― Nnedi Okorafor , Binti (Binti, #1)