Aya > Aya's Quotes

“What I fear most, I think, is the death of the imagination.... If I sit still and don't do anything, the world goes on beating like a slack drum, without meaning. We must be moving, working, making dreams to run toward; the poverty of life without dreams is too horrible to imagine.”
― Sylvia Plath

“As a society, you were unwilling to reflect upon the shared pain that united you with those who attacked you. You retreated into myths of your own difference, assumptions of your own superiority. And you acted out these beliefs on the stage of the world, so that the entire planet was rocked by the repercussions of your tantrums, not least my family, now facing war thousands of miles away.”
― Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist

“Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.”
― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

“We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it.”
― Tennessee Williams, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore

“سقف بيتي حديد ** ركن بيتي حجر
فاعصفي يا رياح ** وانتحب يا شجر
واسبحي يا غيوم ** واهطلي بالمطر
واقصفي يا رعود ** لست أخشى خطر
سقف بيتي حديد ** ركن بيتي حجر
من سراجي الضئيل ** أستمد البصر
كلما الليل طال ** والظلام انتشر
وإذا الفجر مات ** والنهار انتحر
فاختفي يا نجوم ** وانطفي يا قمر
من سراجي الضئيل ** أستمد البصر
باب قلبي حصين ** من صنوف الكدر
فاهجمي يا هموم ** في المسا والسحر
وازحفي يا نحوس ** بالشقا والضجر
وانزلي بالألوف ** يا خطوب البشر
باب قلبي حصين ** من صنوف الكدر
وحليفي القضاء ** ورفيقي القدر
فاقدحي يا شرور ** حول قلبي الشرر
واحفري يا منون ** حول بيتي الحفر
لست أخشى العذاب ** لست أخشى الضرر
وحليفي القضاء ** ورفيقي القدر”
― ميخائيل نعيمة

“I am frequently asked if I have visited Israel, whereas yet, it is simply assumed that I have. Well, I don’t travel. I really don’t, and if I did, I probably wouldn’t visit Israel. I remember how it was in 1948 when Israel was being established and all my Jewish friends were ecstatic, I was not. I said: what are we doing? We are establishing ourselves in a ghetto, in a small corner of a vast Muslim sea. The Muslims will never forget nor forgive, and Israel, as long as it exists, will be embattled. I was laughed at, but I was right. I can’t help but feel that the Jews didn’t really have the right to appropriate a territory only because 2000 years ago, people they consider their ancestors, were living there. History moves on and you can’t really turn it back. (#92 ff.)”
― Isaac Asimov, Asimov Laughs Again: More Than 700 Jokes, Limericks and Anecdotes