Bianca Marais > Quotes

“I didn’t know what to say in a world where people were hated and attacked for not being the right color, not speaking the right language, not worshipping the right god or not loving the right people; a world where hatred was the common language, and bricks, the only words.”
― Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don't Know the Words

“I don't know this song. They haven't taught me it to us at school."
" When in doubt, just do what I do, Robs. Hum if you don't know the words”
― Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don't Know the Words

“We are each alone in the bubble of our grief, and while it's true that misery loves company, sorrow is not reduced or diminished in any way when it's shared.”
― Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don't Know the Words

“As women, we're told our worth and our value, and the many ways in which we fall short of others' expectations; we're told why we're whores and why society can't tolerate whores. We're reminded of the ways we dishonor the unwritten contract we didn't know we signed on the day of our birth: a contract in which we agreed to toe the line and know our place simply because we are the fairer sex.”
― Bianca Marais, If You Want to Make God Laugh

“Behold my field of fucks. Lay thine eyes upon it, and thou shalt see that it is barren.”
― Bianca Marais, The Witches of Moonshyne Manor

“I do not think it is brave to pick up a gun or to carry a bomb, but it is brave to open yourself up to the potential for loss and disappointment when you have already felt too much of its sting.”
― Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don't Know the Words

“The universe speaks in clues and signs, gentle nudges and hints, rather than pontifications and proverbs, commandments and condemnations. I have trusted its signs all my life, which is why I listened when it seemed like it wanted me back here.”
― Bianca Marais, If You Want to Make God Laugh

“Some good-byes are as gentle and inevitable as sunset, while some blindside you like a collision you didn't see coming. Some good-byes are schoolyard bullies you are powerless to stop, while others punctuate the end of a relationship because you decided: enough. Some are heartbreaking, leaving you a little more damaged than you were before, others set you free.”
― Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don't Know the Words

“Fear is what makes us human and it is in overcoming fear that we show our strength.”
― Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don't Know the Words

“The only thing a warrior cannot fight is her own fierce nature.”
― Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don't Know the Words

“Only after I had learned those boundaries and generalities of my grief was I able to venture further into the mountains and valleys, the peaks and troughs of my despair. And as I traversed them-breathing a sigh of relief thinking that I'd conquered the worst of it-only then would I finally arrive at the truth about loss, the part no one ever warns you about: that grief is a city all of its own, built high on a hill and surrounded by stone walls. It is a fortress that you will inhabit for the rest of your life, walking its dead-end roads forever. The trick is to stop trying to escape and, instead, to make yourself at home.”
― Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don't Know the Words

“But I know better than anyone how the heart can play the most terrible tricks on the mind. It’s a traitorous beast that can’t be trusted at the best of times, but even less so when it’s so utterly broken.”
― Bianca Marais, If You Want to Make God Laugh

“I didn't know what to say in a world where people were hated and attacked for not being the right color, not speaking the right language, not worshipping the right god or not loving the right people; a world where hatred was the common language and bricks, the only words.”
― Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don't Know the Words

“Sometimes what we deem a sacrifice worth making is one that comes with a price too high to expect another to pay.”
― Bianca Marais, If You Want to Make God Laugh

“You get two families. The one you’re bonded to by blood ties and the one you’re bonded to by a force far greater than blood. Choice is a mighty powerful thing.”
― Bianca Marais, The Witches of Moonshyne Manor

“It’s such a pity that intellectualizing anxiety doesn’t actually do anything to diminish it.”
― Bianca Marais, The Witches of Moonshyne Manor

“There is no lingering twilight in Africa, no gentle gloaming as day eases into night; a tender give-and-take between light and shadow. Night settles swiftly. If you are vigilant, and not prone to distractions, you can almost feel the very moment daylight slips through your fingers and leaves you clutching the inky sap that is the sub-Saharan night.”
― Bianca Marais

“Black, white, homosexual, heterosexual, Christian, Jew, Englishman, Afrikaner, adult, child, man, woman: we were all there together, but somehow that eclectic jumble of labels was overwritten by the one classification that applied to every person there: “friend.”
― Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don't Know the Words

“am learning how love wells up and causes great pain when it has nowhere to go.”
― Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don't Know the Words

“I do not doubt that you are a good woman, but the very fact that you are so righteous might be the reason Nomsa could not be honest with you. Sinners have more forgiving ears than saints.”
― Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don't Know the Words

“Almost everyone who mattered most to me was in the same room...Black, white, homosexual, heterosexual, Christian, Jew, Englishman, Afrikaner, adult, child, man, woman; we were all there together; but somehow that eclectic jumble of labels was overwritten by the one classification that applied to every person there: "friend".”
― Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don't Know the Words

“She thinks of how sometimes the most sacred conversations we’ll ever have are the ones that require no words, and how there are very few people in our lives who we’ll ever speak that silent language with.”
― Bianca Marais, The Witches of Moonshyne Manor

“Here in my homeland, I am always barefoot.”
― Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don't Know the Words

“Age’s sole purpose is to gift us more years in which to experience the minefield that is living. Along with that, it grants us the perspective to know that by the end of it all, it doesn’t matter a damn whit that we no longer look like our younger selves.”
― Bianca Marais, The Witches of Moonshyne Manor

“It’s funny how our dreams change over time, how lofty they are at the beginning and how quickly we’re prepared to lower our expectations when it becomes clear we’ve been aiming too high.”
― Bianca Marais, If You Want to Make God Laugh

“Age's sole purpose is to gift us more years in which to experience the minefield that is living. Along with that, it grants us the perspective to know that by the end of it all, it doesn't matter a damn whit that we no longer look like our younger selves. Because here's the thing we are no longer those supple, youthful, foolish people. We're that much older and infinitely wiser, war-weary and battle-scarred. We've become survivors and warriors, and as Ruby will tell you, you should always, always look the part.”
― Bianca Marais, The Witches of Moonshyne Manor

“Choice is a mighty powerful thing, Ivy. When the time comes, choose your sisters wisely.”
― Bianca Marais, The Witches of Moonshyne Manor

“Саме страх робить нас людьми, а долаючи страх, ми показуємо свою силу.”
― Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don't Know the Words

“It seemed for those whose souls overflowed with an abundance of maternal instincts there would always be something or someone in need of nurturing.”
― Bianca Marais, The Witches of Moonshyne Manor

“We were each alone in the bubble of our grief, and while it’s true that misery loves company, sorrow is not reduced or diminished in any way even when it’s shared.”
― Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don't Know the Words