Tara Sullivan > Quotes

“I decide that, for now, I will allow myself to be happy with how far we’ve come and I won’t let myself fear what will happen next.”
― Tara Sullivan, The Bitter Side of Sweet

“There is no problem so big, no anger so great that it can fill the sky.”
― Tara Sullivan, The Bitter Side of Sweet

“I sit up, clenching my fists, wishing I had someone that I could beat.”
― Tara Sullivan, The Bitter Side of Sweet

“Although Golden Boy is a work of fiction, the situations portrayed in it are real. The first materials that Habo and Davu read together in the library are all real. The children’s book they read aloud is a real book, True Friends: A Tale from Tanzania, by John Kilaka. All of the newspaper headlines they read came from real newspapers. Sadly, the stories of the people with albinism in Golden Boy are real as well. The two members of parliament that Habo sees on TV are real people, and so was Charlie Ngeleja. He died in Mwanza the way Auntie describes to Habo’s family. Charlie’s is just one story, but there are too many like his. When I came across a news story in 2009 that told about the kidnapping, mutilation, and murder of African albinos for use as good-luck talismans, I was upset that I had never heard about the tragedy before. I started looking for books on the subject and found none. The most I could find were a few articles from international newspapers and a documentary produced by Al Jazeera English: Africa Uncovered: Murder & Myth. This haunting documentary touched a nerve and sent me down the path of writing Golden Boy.”
― Tara Sullivan, Golden Boy

“I’ve learned that quiet words are often more frightening than loud ones.”
― Tara Sullivan, The Bitter Side of Sweet

“In the early days here I used to think all the time: How can I run away? What is my family doing right now? Is Moke worried about us? Are they searching? How much longer will we have to work before we pay off our debt and the bosses let us go home? The questions would seethe through me, twisting on themselves in new shapes again and again like an injured snake. I soon learned the price of thinking. It slowed me down, and I didn’t make quota. Now I count instead of thinking and I’m able to get through most of my waking hours in a daze. It’s better this way.”
― Tara Sullivan, The Bitter Side of Sweet

“I shake my head to get rid of all this useless thinking and set myself to the task of counting things that matter.”
― Tara Sullivan, The Bitter Side of Sweet

“chocolate companies cannot exist without consumer demand. If you’re bothered by the state of the chocolate industry, you, as a consumer, can have an impact. Consider writing, e-mailing, or using social media to contact your favorite chocolate company and ask them to make a commitment to decreasing the poverty of the producers in their supply chain. Or, do some actual (or virtual) reverse trick-or-treating where you tell people about this issue instead of taking mainstream chocolate from them on Halloween. One way or another, decide to be deeply informed about your favorite treat before you enjoy it.”
― Tara Sullivan, The Bitter Side of Sweet

“just grew up in the same country as them, but that doesn’t make me like them.”
― Tara Sullivan, The Bitter Side of Sweet