Ashna Aziz

“I knew nothing of that kind of love. I knew nothing about pearls and shells either except that one had to free itself from the other. We were both calmer than we should have been, Benafsha because she had lived her love, and me because I had never known it.”
― Nadia Hashimi, The Pearl that Broke Its Shell

“Just as when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.”
― Cecelia Ahern, The Year I Met You

“There is some kiss we want with our whole lives,
The touch of Spirit on the body.
Seawater begs the pearl to break its shell.
And the lily, how passionately it needs some wild
Darling!
At night, I open the window and ask the moon to come
And press its face against mine. Breathe into me.”
― Nadia Hashimi, The Pearl that Broke Its Shell

“If I see my city as beautiful and bewitching, then my life must be so too.”
― Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul