Rachel Corrie > Quotes

“We are all born and someday we’ll all die. Most likely to some degree alone.What if our aloneness isn’t a tragedy? What if our aloneness is what allows us to speak the truth without being afraid? What if our aloneness is what allows us to adventure – to experience the world as a dynamic presence – as a changeable, interactive thing?

If I lived in Bosnia or Rwanda or who knows where else, needless death wouldn’t be a distant symbol to me, it wouldn’t be a metaphor, it would be a reality.

And I have no right to this metaphor. But I use it to console myself. To give a fraction of meaning to something enormous and needless.

This realization. This realization that I will live my life in this world where I have privileges.

I can’t cool boiling waters in Russia. I can’t be Picasso. I can’t be Jesus. I can’t save the planet single-handedly.

I can wash dishes.”
― Rachel Corrie

“By Rachel Corrie, aged 10 — 1990

I’m here for other children.
I’m here because I care.
I’m here because children everywhere are suffering and because forty thousand people die each day from hunger.
I’m here because those people are mostly children.
We have got to understand that the poor are all around us and we are ignoring them.
We have got to understand that these deaths are preventable.
We have got to understand that people in third world countries think and care and smile and cry just like us.
We have got to understand that they dream our dreams and we dream theirs.
We have got to understand that they are us. We are them.
My dream is to stop hunger by the year 2000.
My dream is to give the poor a chance.
My dream is to save the 40,000 people who die each day.
My dream can and will come true if we all look into the future and see the light that shines there.
If we ignore hunger, that light will go out.
If we all help and work together, it will grow and burn free with the potential of tomorrow.”
― Rachel Corrie

“We should be inspired by people... who show that human beings can be kind, brave, generous, beautiful, strong-even in the most difficult circumstances.”
― Rachel Corrie

“I think it was smart that you’re wary of using the word “terrorism,” and if you talk about the cycle of violence, or “an eye for an eye,” you could be perpetuating the idea that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a balanced conflict, instead of a largely unarmed people against the fourth most powerful military in the world.”
― Rachel Corrie, My Name is Rachel Corrie

“We are protecting civilians. We are unarmed. We are no threat to you. Please do not shoot.”
― Rachel Corrie

“I got a number of very thoughtful responses to the email I sent out last night, most of which I don’t have time to respond to right now. Thanks everyone for the encouragement, questions, criticism. Daniel’s response was particularly inspiring to me and deserves to be shared. The resistance of Israeli Jewish people to the occupation and the enormous risk taken by those refusing to serve in the Israeli military offers an example, especially for those of us living in the United States, of how to behave when you discover that atrocities are being commited in your name. Thank you.”
― Rachel Corrie

“Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realize there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I'm having dinner with.”
― Rachel Corrie

“I feel like I'm witnessing the systematic destruction of a people's ability to survive. It's horrifying.”
― Rachel Corrie

“I feel like I'm witnessing the
systematic destruction of a
people's ability to survive....
Sometimes I sit down to dinner
with people and I realize there
is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill
the people I'm having dinner with”
― Rachel Corrie

“The scariest thing for non-Jewish Americans in talking about Palestinian self-determination is the fear of being or sounding anti-Semitic. The people of Israel are suffering, and Jewish people have a long history of oppression. We still have some responsibility for that, but I think it’s important to draw a firm distinction between the policies of Israel, as a state, and Jewish people. That's kind of a no-brainer, but there is very strong pressure to conflate the two.”
― Rachel Corrie

“Nothing could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here. You just can’t imagine it unless you see it. And even then your experience is not at all the reality: what with the difficulties the Israeli army would face if they shot an unarmed US citizen, the fact that I have money to buy water when the army destroys wells, and of course, the fact that I have the option to leave. I am allowed to see the ocean.”
― Rachel Corrie, My Name is Rachel Corrie

“There used to be a middle class here – recently. We also get reports that in the past, Gazan flower shipments to Europe were delayed for two weeks at the Erez crossing for security inspections. You can imagine the value of two-week-old cut flowers in the European market, so that market dried up. And then the bulldozers come and take out people’s vegetable farms and gardens. What is left for people? Tell me if you can think of anything. I can’t.”
― Rachel Corrie, My Name is Rachel Corrie

“I look forward to seeing more and more people willing to resist the direction the world is moving in, a direction where our personal experiences are irrelevant, that we are defective, that our communities are not important, that we are powerless, that our future is determined, and that the highest level of humanity is expressed through what we choose to buy at the mall.”
― Rachel Corrie, My Name is Rachel Corrie

“Sources of economic growth are all completely destroyed – the airport (runways demolished, totally closed); the border for trade with Egypt (now with a sniper tower in the middle of the crossing); access to the ocean (completely cut off in the last two years ).”
― Rachel Corrie, My Name is Rachel Corrie

“I’m here for other children.
I’m here because I care.
I’m here because children
everywhere are suffering
and because forty thousand people
die each day from hunger.

I’m here because
those people
are mostly children.

We have got to understand
that the poor are all around us
and we are ignoring them.

We have got to understand
that these deaths are preventable.

We have got to understand
that people in third world countries
think and care and smile and cry just like us.

We have got to understand
that they dream our dreams and we dream theirs.

We have got to understand
that they are us. We are them.

My dream is to stop hunger by the year 2000.
My dream is to give the poor a chance.
My dream is to save the 40,000 people
who die each day.

My dream can and will come true
if we all look into the future and see
the light that shines there.

If we ignore hunger, that light will go out.
If we all help and work together,
it will grow and burn free
with the potential of tomorrow.”
― Rachel Corrie

“I have been writing for as long as I can remember. Fed by the books my parents read aloud to me, when I was little I would wander around my yard imagining I was a bird, or a runaway princess, or a fairy; and I would make up narratives about what I did. That pastime blossomed into dictating stories to my family and teachers until I learned to write well myself. I have always loved to draw. I have never been sure which hobby I am more passionate about. Now, as I write this, I realize that I would not love drawing if I didn’t make up stories in my mind about the things I draw. Both of these passions come from my need to capture what I see without destroying it, to clarify images and make them mine, and to express to the world the love I have for the things I perceive.”
― Rachel Corrie, Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie

“I’m here for other children.
I’m here because I care.
I’m here because children everywhere are suffering and because forty thousand people die each day from hunger.
I’m here because those people are mostly children.
We have got to understand that the poor are all around us and we are ignoring them.
We have got to understand that these deaths are preventable.
We have got to understand that people in third world countries think and care and smile and cry just like us.
We have got to understand that they dream our dreams and we dream theirs.
We have got to understand that they are us. We are them.
My dream is to stop hunger by the year 2000.
My dream is to give the poor a chance.
My dream is to save the 40,000 people who die each day.
My dream can and will come true if we all look into the future and see the light that shines there.
If we ignore hunger, that light will go out.
If we all help and work together, it will grow and burn free with the potential of tomorrow.”
― Rachel Corrie

“The world knows of Rachel from how she died, but we know her from how she lived. She was, first and last, a writer and artist. Compelled to create, she was left only with the choice to become good at it. Rachel worked hard at her craft from an early age. When she was ten, a friend of mine asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. “I am a poet!” she declared. Words were sacred to Rachel, and her words have become treasures to us. They are what we have left and are an immense gift to our family. With this book, we offer that gift to you.”
― Rachel Corrie, Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie

“I think giving up comforting habits and behavior patterns is one of the most radical things that can happen.”
― Rachel Corrie, Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie