“We will one day dance, on the very ground that taught us pain.”

“Habit is the strongest god in Mecca; for everything else is temporary, but habit returns every single day.”

“I was silent for 20 years. This book is my scream.”

“The sole of the foot is where a person stands. A blow to the sole means: you have no right to stand on your own feet, no right to resist, no right to exist.”

“Shells are first built for survival; then, little by little, they become a prison.”

“The poor must not ask for anything; because when they do, they either hear ’no’ or receive ‘pity.’ And both of these are like a knife plunging into your heart.”

“Surviving is not the same as living. For years, I only survived. I did not live.”

“I forgave my father. Not for him. For myself. Because holding onto resentment is like drinking poison yourself and waiting for the other person to die.”

“Leaving makes people old. Staying, perhaps, is the elixir of youth.”

“Kindness does not make people grow old. Forgiveness does not wrinkle the skin.”

“We did not fall in love because we were beautiful. We fell in love because we had survived.”

“Endurance is not a virtue. It is a habit. A habit the poor learn in order to stay alive.”

“When you have been in filth for a while, you no longer smell it. For years, I thought violence was normal, pain was normal, loneliness was normal. Because I had grown accustomed to it.”

“This is my revenge on the past. A revenge not of anger, but of love.”

“Home, for me, is no longer an address. Home is where I feel I no longer need to run away.”

“I would rather be alone with the truth, than accompanied by a lie.”

“Failure is different from choice. Failure is something breaking you. Choice is you deciding for yourself.”

“I cannot change the past. I cannot bring my father back. I cannot save that child. But I can change the future. I can save my children. I can break the cycle.”

“I lost, I won, but I did not break. And now, I dance.”

“Now it is your turn. Rise. Dance.”