How horrifying that morning when you wake up and your first thought is not of the person who has left. That’s when you know, I will never die of a broken heart. Kamila Shamsie More Quotes by Kamila Shamsie More Quotes From Kamila Shamsie There is no mystery-- that's the beauty of it. We are entirely explicable to each other, and yet we stay. What a miracle that is. Kamila Shamsie happy-anniversary true-love miracle For a second I was almost jealous of the clouds. Why was he looking to them for an escape when I was right here beside him? Kamila Shamsie jealous jealousy clouds How to explain to the earth that it was more functional as a vegetable patch than a flower garden, just as factories were more functional than schools and boys were more functional as weapons than as humans. Kamila Shamsie flower boys school If I wasn't me, you wouldn't be you. Kamila Shamsie be-you ifs Her definition of romance was absentminded intimacy, the way someone else's hand stray to your plate of food. I replied: no, that's just friendship; romance is always knowing exactly where that someone else's hands are. She smiled and said, there was a time I thought that way, too. But at the heart of the romance is the knowledge that those hands may wander off elsewhere, but somehow through luck or destiny or plain blind groping they'll find a way back to you, and maybe you'll be smart enough then to be grateful for everything that's still possible, in spit of your own weaknesses- and his. Kamila Shamsie smart grateful heart We should have stories in common, I found myself thinking. We should have stories, and jokes no one understands, and memories that we know will stay alive because neither of us will let the other forget. Kamila Shamsie should-have memories thinking When you can be this, why are you ever anything else? - Broken Verses Kamila Shamsie verses broken Bijli fails in the dead of night / Won’t help to call “I need a light” / You’re in Karachi now / Oh, oh you’re in Karachi now. / Night is falling and you just cant see / Is this illusion or KESC / You’re in Karachi now Kamila Shamsie light night fall Pride! In English it is a Deadly Sin. But in Urdu it is fakhr and nazish - both names that you can find more than once on our family tree. Kamila Shamsie pride names tree There’s a ghost of a dream that you don’t even try to shake free off because you’re too in love with the way she haunts you. Kamila Shamsie dream trying way I'll fall.' 'You wont fall.' 'I'll fall. I'll fall and I'll die.' As I said it, I could see it happening. The foot stepping on air, pulling the rest of my body with it, tree limbs breaking as I plummeted down. 'No,' he said, his voice assured, 'You'd never do that to me. Kamila Shamsie voice air fall Is love stronger when it let's go or when it holds on? Kamila Shamsie stronger How do you eat your roots? Kamila Shamsie roots That's what I want for my life. I want to go to Peshawar... Because there's more past than present there. Two and a half thousand years of history beneath its soil. How long a list of reasons do you need? Kamila Shamsie two past years The truths we conceal don't disappear Raheen, they appear in different forms Kamila Shamsie disappear form different They adore you beacause they think you offer up your friendship and ask for nothing in return. But that's not true-' He took a deep breath. 'You do ask for something. You ask that we never expect you to need us. Kamila Shamsie return needs thinking Can I ask you a personal question"? Of all the rhetorical questions in the world, that is the one which irritates me most with its simultaneous gesture towards and denial of the trespass that is about to follow. Kamila Shamsie gestures denial world No self-respecting feminist could argue with the claim that the novel is more likely to accept existing power structures than not. But there's a vast difference, surely, between Dickens saying Indians should be exterminated and a Dave Eggers writing eloquently about the NSA, but not being as outspoken on American military power abroad. Kamila Shamsie military self writing Don't you know how much I hero-worshiped you when I was a kid? You were Marie Curie crossed with Emily Bronte crossed with Joan of Arc to me when I was ten. And when i told you that, you said my cultural references were the sign of a colonized mind. Kamila Shamsie hero mind kids Somewhere deep within the marrow of our marrow, we were the same. Kamila Shamsie marrow deep-within