Safi Quotes

We are like the watermelons. Each of us has a crusty external rind. A case that both protects us and keeps others out. The closer you get to the middle, that is to say - the closer you get to the heart - the sweeter we get. ~ Omid Safi

Of strangers asking her over and over again what she was. Like a piece of flora or fauna. Like she was missing her proper taxonomy. ~ Aminah Mae Safi

i want to restart my
life.
but they don,t
restart
when once she past.
its nature of life. ~ Saif Ullah Safi

I'll be fine, Safi. You forget that I taught you the art of evisceration.'
Safi scoffed, but her Threads flared with with amused pink. 'Is that so, dear Threadsister? Have you already forgotten that it was me they called The Great Eviscerator back in Veñaza City?' Safi flung a dramatic hand high as she twirled toward Ryber.
Now Iseult didn't have to fake a grin. 'Is that what you thought they said?' she called. 'It was actually The Great Vociferator, Safi, because that mouth of yours is so big. ~ Susan Dennard

Well, Safi was calling horse shit on that. She didn't lack initiative - she was initiative. ~ Susan Dennard

Queens, Lulu-cat. We've crowned ourselves. We run ragged as we please. The only people who tell us what to do are each other. ~ Aminah Mae Safi

I hate this. Both the storm and the plan. Why does it have to be 'we'? Why not just me?"
"Because 'just me' isn't who we are," Iseult hollered back. "I'll always follow you, Safi, and you'll always follow me. Threadsisters to the end. ~ Susan Dennard

Everybody wants to be somebody's Yoda. ~ Aminah Mae Safi

Some Wishes won't become true But will lead you to the ultimate Truth ~ Uzair Safi

All the Arabic I know. Pshhhh. Besides, between the two of us combined we've got the vocabulary of at least a three-year-old', Miriam huffed. 'Between the two of us,' Lulu said, flourishing her hand, 'we are at least one whole terrorist. ~ Aminah Mae Safi

I told you, Hell-Bard. Everyone lies. It's in the way we banter with our friends. It's in the mundane greetings we give passersby. It's in the most meaningless things we do every single moment of every single day. Hundreds upon thousands of tiny, inconsequential lies. ~ Susan Dennard

Never had Safi seen so many furled sails. Or circling sea gulls.
Cursed birds. ~ Susan Dennard

It's kind of amazing what you can do when you decided you can't fail. ~ Aminah Mae Safi

Oh, I know!" Safi clapped her hands, delighted by her own genius. "I shall call you Un-empressed."
"Please," Vaness said coldly, "stop this immediately."
Safi absolutely did not. ~ Susan Dennard

Safi was beyond anger. Beyond temper. This was her life now - forever running, forever changing hands from one enemy to the next until eventually the enemy severed her neck. It had been inevitable, really. Her magic had cursed her from the day she was born. ~ Susan Dennard

You gave me books and articles. You keep telling me not to forget I'm Arab. But it's not just the white people reminding me who I am, Baba. Arabs remind me I'm not one of them too. This world may never let me forget I am Arab, but it will also keep me from belonging as one of them. ~ Aminah Mae Safi

Iseult hated herself for that truth, but there it was. She wanted to go after Safi; she wanted Aeduan to lead the way; she wished this child would simply disappear.
Monster, she told herself. You're a monster. ~ Susan Dennard

James reminded Lulu of things best forgotten, of the cost of survival and the price of high living. Lulu had paid the price by trading in her tongue. Lo had cut out her heart. Audrey, who had been born into this world, had no ability to see beyond its borders. Emma alone seemed untouched by any kind of deal with the devil. But Lulu didn't believe that to be true. Nobody could go without paying the price. The prize of being accepted into the fold of the one-day rich and powerful was too tempting, too all-encompassing. Emma's bargain must have been the worst of all to stay so neat and invisible. ~ Aminah Mae Safi

When I ask, "How are you?" that is really what I want to know. I am not asking how many items are on your to-do list, nor asking how many items are in your inbox. I want to know how your heart is doing, at this very moment. Tell me. Tell me your heart is joyous, tell me your heart is aching, tell me your heart is sad, tell me your heart craves a human touch. Examine your own heart, explore your soul, and then tell me something about your heart and your soul. ~ Omid Safi

She thought that irritation is sometimes the most honest way of expressing love. ~ Aminah Mae Safi

Safi ignored him--he was clearly an idiot ~ Susan Dennard

They will tell us we can be better than queens of the wild great something. They already told us we couldn't be fairy princesses or white knights or dragon slayers. They will tell us to grow up, be serious. They will tell us to fight for a spot at the table. But now, we don't. We desecrate their tables. We dance on tables. We take really big swords and hack those tables into tiny little pieces. ~ Aminah Mae Safi

Tragedy was in their bones. ~ Aminah Mae Safi

and she and the mare set off after Safi. ~ Susan Dennard

And do all Hell-Bards waddle like a duck, or is it just you? ~ Susan Dennard

This disease of being "busy" (and let's call it what it is, the dis-ease of being busy, when we are never at ease) is spiritually destructive to our health and wellbeing. It saps our ability to be fully present with those we love the most in our families, and keeps us from forming the kind of community that we all so desperately crave. ~ Omid Safi

English, unlike Arabic, was not a poetic language. English had been cobbled together by too many unknown parents, too many unsure users. English lacked the single word that differentiated an attacking lion from one at rest. Nor did English have the capacity to relay the succinct, linguistic separation of a maternal uncle from a paternal one. English was not a thoughtful language. ~ Aminah Mae Safi

No, I'm not angry. I'm furious. Livid. I'm beyond. If anger were the circles of hell, I'd be sitting there in the ninth one with fucking Lucifer himself. No. I'd kick Lucifer out. I'd be too angry for Lucifer. For fucking Satan. Do you get me? ~ Aminah Mae Safi

They told her the attack was her fault. She was Iraqi, wasn't she, they had accused. They knew she was Muslim. Her fault, they had kept on, the dirty little terrorist, the conspiring towel head. Lulu had stood for the first time, at a loss for words. Worse than hearing the words from hateful strangers-she had heard the poisonous words from boys she'd grown up with, boys she'd kissed, boys she'd had crushes on, boys she'd tasted her first alcohol with, boys she'd wrestled with for control of the tv remote.

Strangers, at least, she could have ignored.

She should have felt punched in the stomach. But she hadn't. She should have screamed and yelled back at them. But she hadn't. Instead, she had stood there, dazed and stupid, while wondering if all those years she'd thought she belonged there she had been terribly, horribly mistaken. The relatives who died fighting tyranny had choked the words in her throat. Her heart had shattered that day, into thousands of selfish pieces. The one she had now, the one she had to put back together, had slivers missing in the strangest of places. ~ Aminah Mae Safi

Safi snatched the other side of his shirt. These go inside these. ~ Susan Dennard

I can't go around proving I'm American to everyone I meet. That's too exhausting. And, I'm Arab too. It's in-between. I'm in between. It doesn't come with a neat package or a support group. It just is. I can't change it. And even If I could, I wouldn't.

I don't fit. And sometimes that's the worst-knowing I'll never fit; nowhere will ever feel comfortable and nowhere will ever accept me all the way. ~ Aminah Mae Safi

Robert Spencer, a prolific anti-Islam writer and a leading Islamophobe who is bent on distorting Islam and demonizing Muslims, has persistently argued that violence and terrorism employed by Muslim extremists is rooted in the Quran and its message. Spencer calls the Quran, a book sacred to Muslim, 'the jihadists' Mein Kampf,' in reference to Hitler's memoir. ~ Louay M. Safi

You've always been my independent one. You hold in so much. You aren't who anyone decides you are. You aren't how anyone treats you. You have to find peace in that. It's not easy, but you do. ~ Aminah Mae Safi

Never had Iseult asked for anything. Not since learning as a little girl that rusted locks on a door were the best she could ever hope for.
Then she'd met Safi, and secretly, silently, so deep no one would ever find it, Iseult had started to hope that her life might turn into something. Little dreams weren't so bad. Iseult could brush against them from time to time, and no one would ever be the wiser. ~ Susan Dennard