“We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited.”
― Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
― Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
“But the real world doesn't go away. Racism exists. People are getting hurt. And just because it's not happening to you, doesn't mean it's not happening. And at some point you have to choose; black or white, pick a side. You can try to hide from it. You can say, oh I don't take sides, but at some point, life will force you to pick a side.”
― Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
― Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
“People love to say, “Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” What they don’t say is, “And it would be nice if you gave him a fishing rod.” That’s the part of the analogy that’s missing.”
― Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
― Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
“I myself cried when I got angry, then became unable to explain why I was angry in the first place. Later I would discover this was endemic among female human beings. Anger is supposed to be "unfeminine" so we suppress it -until it overflows. I could see that not speaking up made my mother feel worse. This was my first hint of the truism that depression is anger turned inward; thus women are twice as likely to be depressed. My mother paid a high price for caring so much, yet being able to do so little about it. In this way, she led me toward am activist place where she herself could never go.”
― My Life on the Road
― My Life on the Road
“Language, even more than color, defines who you are to people.”
― Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
― Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
Aks’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Aks’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Biography, Business, Classics, Contemporary, Cookbooks, Crime, History, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Psychology, Science, Suspense, Thriller, and Travel
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