Blatantly Brown

“The cracks in the Pakistani glass ceiling have been slow to form, and they only materialize with a combination of education, class privilege and familial support. So, when women like me who have been afforded such immense privilege choose to step into the kitchen, we do it on the shoulders of entire communities.”
― Claire Chambers, Desi Delicacies: Food Writing from Muslim South Asia

“There are perhaps few cuisines that demand as much time and patience as Pakistani food. We do have our quick karahis, balti goshts and tikkas, but the bulk of Pakistani cooking is a masterclass in patience.”
― Claire Chambers, Desi Delicacies: Food Writing from Muslim South Asia

“My grandmother smiled at Ammi's simplicity. My mother, with her university degree, had learned that the world existed In binaries of sanity and madness, and was caught between her faith, which believed in both sorcery and creatures that morphed into cats, and modern rationality, to which these were but
collective hallucinations.”
― Claire Chambers, Desi Delicacies: Food Writing from Muslim South Asia

“All problems with writing and performing come from fear. Fear of exposure, fear of weakness, fear of lack of talent, fear of looking like a fool for trying, for even thinking you could write in the first place. It's all fear. If we didn't have fear, imagine the creativity in the world. Fear holds us back every step of the way. A lot of studies say that despite all our fears in this country - death, war, guns, illness - our biggest fear is public speaking. What I am doing right now. And when people are asked to identify which kind of public speaking they are most afraid of, they check the improvisation box. So improvisation is the number-one fear in America. Forget a nuclear winter or an eight-point nine earthquake or another Hitler. It's improv. Which is funny, because aren't we just improvising all day long? Isn't our whole life just one long improvisation? What are we so scared of?”
― Lily King, Writers & Lovers