Hannah V. Sawyerr > Quotes

“Testifying against my abuser
is not about a trial
or about revenge
This is a woman learning
that to wear the burden of hurt
but to deprive herself of the blessing that is healing
is its own injustice.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, For Girls Growing into Their Hips

“It is not your job to understand. Sick people do sick things. You do not understand the mind of an abuser, because you are not sick like one.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr

“I have a birthmark on my calf that mimics the shape of a closed-mouth kiss. Most days, it is a reminder that I was built for love.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, For Girls Growing into Their Hips

“I am a warrior on the days I shout and on the days when silence wraps me in its arms like my only friend.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts

“Words are never enough to clean a mess after it's made.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts

“What reason does a girl have to fight anything
in a world that protects you only when you're silent?" -Amina”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts

“My father worshipped Johnson like a god. Wonder if I kept my mouth shut if my father would still find salvation in Him. Wonder if my father still remembers Johnson Whenever he thinks of God Whenever he prays to God Whenever he cries to God I think of my father Whenever I am angry with God Whenever I am hurt by God Whenever I hate God Does that make me: a survivor? his daughter? or a devil?”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts: A Novel

“But if you listen closely, even silence carries a story worth telling.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts: A Novel

“In the Bible, Mary’s man didn’t believe her. I wonder if during this trial if God will tell the people the truth about who their pastor is, or if I will have to bear the weight of setting my own truth free.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts: A Novel

“My mother believed in God with her whole heart, but she also believed in love, laughter, dance. My father used to dance with her. Sometimes I would just watch, but other times I would dance with them too. Sometimes my mother retired her gospel music, and traded it for soul, R&B, jazz, or her favorite, Stevie Wonder. Letting Songs in the Key of Life fill our home and our hearts. But when my mother passed, my dad lost his spark, his rhythm, his way.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts: A Novel

“Just a couple of Sundays ago, Johnson said: The world knows Mary for being the mother of Jesus. A woman chosen by God to give a miraculous virgin birth. I know Mary faced a world full of judgment, being tasked with bearing a burden she never asked for, but the pastor never tells the story that way.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts: A Novel

“You inherited all the fighting parts of your mother.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts: A Novel

“What reason does a girl have to fight anything in a world that protects you only when you’re silent?”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts: A Novel

“But sometimes I wonder if my father ever forgets who God is, like I do when I am angry. I wonder if he ever doubts— MINA! until it’s the week of my mother’s death. When he’s reading the Bible and chanting prayers every chance he gets— as if it could miraculously bring her back. Ain’t it funny how death can make people find faith in a God they barely believed in?”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts: A Novel

“People are not objects
They are not meant for fixing
And while I’ve sometimes been able to preserve—
You can never revive a dead thing”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, For Girls Growing into Their Hips

“Sometimes I feel my worth is determined by how loudly I riot. As if surviving is not enough.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts: A Novel

“What reason does a girl have to fight anything in a world that protects you only when you're silent?”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts

“I grew into my hips when I was seventeen years old
I learned from my mother
She used hers like a boat
To bring my father home,
Ashore.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr

“It's okay to not know what you want.
Sometimes telling someone where you're at
can help them know what not to do." -Talia”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts

“How can the holiest of places break a person?”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts: A Novel

“When an immigrant speaks of feeling uncomfortable just know, you are in the presence of man who knows what the sting of assimilation is.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, For Girls Growing into Their Hips

“Some girls get a wall of protection shielding them from this world. Other girlsmust learnto protect themselves. I know where I fall.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts: A Novel

“I shoot the man who told me my womanism is of the devil
As if he knew the demons that trouble me
These demons that trouble me
Have no trouble shooting you
They shoot you
They will not pray
For God’s forgiveness
I always knew
I had a little bit of heathen in me.
Always knew
I had a lot of woman in me.
We shoot you”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, For Girls Growing into Their Hips

“I never wanted to be the back that carries a movement. Never wanted to be the megaphone that amplifies the survivor’s song. All I wanted was a listening ear, willing to understand my story for what it is, and not what people think it should be. Someone willing to hear my story, and love me, Anyway.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts: A Novel

“Mary had a man named Joseph, who didn’t believe her when she told him she wasn’t carrying another man’s son but the Son of Man. The story continues, God told Joseph himself. Confirmed for him, Mary wasn’t lying through a dream— as if a woman’s word is never enough.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts: A Novel

“Ms. Hamilton tells me I am not alone. Where she’s from everyone got a story, and anybody who doesn’t, knows three girls who do. Ms. Hamilton tells me I am brave. I should be proud of speaking up and sharing my truth I should be proud of the last five minutes of my life many people in my position never experience them.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts: A Novel

“But sometimes it feels like as much as I love the way I look, I live in a world that doesn’t.”
― Hannah V. Sawyerr, All the Fighting Parts: A Novel