Telma Rocha > Quotes

“I fight the deep black hole as it fills my head, takes over my memories and tries to pull me back into its abyss of nothingness. I do not have the strength to pull myself through this, so I allow the deep black hole to take a hold of me once again. The emptiness pulls me in and consumes me whole. Sleep now takes over me as I drift off into the same dark place I was in before.”
― Telma Rocha, The Angolan Girl: A True-Life Novel

“If I take a moment to distance myself, I can look at the redecorated space with fresh eyes, unclouded by memories and hope, but when I peel my hands off my face, I find nothing has changed: except it’s all different.”
― Telma Rocha, From Far And Wide

“Through one story, I learn the native black population in Angola does not have as many rights or the same social standing as white people. My father, being white, therefore had more clout over my mother, and so it was more normal for my white father to raise me rather than my native black mother.”
― Telma Rocha, The Angolan Girl: A True-Life Novel

“He is my first love, and the loss of a first love is always the hardest. My clothes now drape like a curtain from not eating, and I am forgetting basic things that I should remember. I contemplate my future as I am not getting any younger, and I must come to a decision soon. I have no other prospect for marriage, and at fifteen, I am at a marriageable age.”
― Telma Rocha, The Angolan Girl: A True-Life Novel

“His skin is like a carapace, refusing to allow vulnerability to penetrate. I, unfortunately, am not as strong.”
― Telma Rocha, The Angolan Girl: A True-Life Novel

“Never let fear stand in the way of what you need or want to do.”
― Telma Rocha, Twenty-Eight Years

“How much can one person be pushed, challenged so greatly that it reaches deep inside your core? There must be a breaking point, like a drop in a song. I’m still waiting for my moment for things to turn around…”
― Telma Rocha, From Far And Wide

“Fear. It flows through us all in a captivating wave as if we welcome it, cherish it, want it. It must, otherwise how could it be so present in our everyday lives, take over our sanity, rule our worlds.”
― Telma Rocha, From Far And Wide

“Guilt is dangerous, a self-inflicting feeling; it entices us to do things that we normally wouldn’t do—forces us to go through each day plagued by horror—time standing still.”
― Telma Rocha, From Far And Wide

“The things we regret in life are lessons learned, or they should be if we would only stop, pay attention, and listen.”
― Telma Rocha, From Far And Wide

“What a picture-perfect family. The only problem is that a picture never tells the real story; it’s only a snapshot of what we want the world to look at. What lies hidden behind the picture that we show the world is the truth we don’t want anyone to know about or see.”
― Telma Rocha, From Far And Wide

“Hope. It’s only a four-letter word but one so powerful.”
― Telma Rocha, From Far And Wide

“People will always judge, it’s human nature, but what we must remember is to not let those judgements affect who we are or our decisions about ourselves and others. When you’re judged someday, my baby, let those judgemental thoughts float right over you.”
― Telma Rocha, Twenty-Eight Years

“The diminishing horizon becomes smaller and disappears like my old life. I say goodbye to the land I was born and raised in, the colony I gave birth to my six children in, and to the life I lived. In private, I say a final goodbye to Tavina, this was the soil my family buried her in, and I do not know when I can touch that soil again.”
― Telma Rocha, The Angolan Girl: A True-Life Novel

“This neighbourhood is more prestigious and luxurious, but prestige and luxury do not matter when you are in the middle of a war zone. War affects everyone, every nationality, every race.”
― Telma Rocha, The Angolan Girl: A True-Life Novel

“Women carry a full load, always, even when our arms are empty.”
― Telma Rocha, The Angolan Girl: A True-Life Novel

“Victoria is like a wave I grip tight and ride to shore, only the wave breaks too early and leaves me floating in unknown waters.”
― Telma Rocha, The Angolan Girl: A True-Life Novel

“It’s important to know what you want, son, then go after it full force and with all your being, but never take what’s not rightfully yours.”
― Telma Rocha, Twenty-Eight Years

“She had hurt him with silence earlier that morning more than she could have damaged his heart with words.”
― Telma Rocha, Twenty-Eight Years

“His father was his life; the anchor that kept him safely docked while the world created ripples from the waves.”
― Telma Rocha, Twenty-Eight Years

“The ultimatum hung in the air, stale, unmoving.”
― Telma Rocha, Twenty-Eight Years

“Hmmm, you know if I was rich, then I would not have to depend on a man to carry me through life.” “João is different.” “That is what women say when their eyes are tainted by love and they cannot see reality clearly.”
― Telma Rocha, The Angolan Girl: A True-Life Novel

“But there comes a time when living in fear and guilt, that the turmoil consumes so much of you that there’s nothing left to feed the monster—without fuel, the monster dies, allowing room for new beginnings.”
― Telma Rocha, From Far And Wide

“You can only control yourself. Your decisions, your choices, and your emotions. Everyone else’s are off limits.”
― Telma Rocha, Twenty-Eight Years

“Time Crawled When Chaos Sped Through Air”
― Telma Rocha, Twenty-Eight Years

“Losing your mother ripped me apart, but you mended me back together.”
― Telma Rocha, Twenty-Eight Years

“Darkness and silence are my only two friends.”
― Telma Rocha, The Angolan Girl: A True-Life Novel

“I try to push away thoughts that soon I’ll be alone again, I’m always alone, fighting the inevitable—it’s me against myself.”
― Telma Rocha, From Far And Wide

“Dreams can be our subconscious mind trying to tell us something, however, dreams can also be a representation of our deepest and darkest fears.”
― Telma Rocha, The Angolan Girl: A True-Life Novel

“He is my much-needed rock when the ground softens all around me.”
― Telma Rocha, The Angolan Girl: A True-Life Novel