I want to create a collection, almost like a trilogy of sorts. Whereas 'Milk and Honey' was very much like holding a mirror up to yourself, the second book is turning that mirror around and fixing it on the world. The book is a reflection of the times we are in.

Rupi Kaur

Categorized in : Yourself Mirror World Reflection

I can sit down with my sisters, and they can talk about my body in a certain way, and I will laugh about it with them. That's such a comfortable and loving relationship. But if a stranger I meet in a party makes the same comment, depending on their tone, that's not okay.

Rupi Kaur

laugh down relationship way

My dad studies and practices homeopathy and Ayurveda medicine. He's a strong believer in both honey and milk as forms of healing. Honey is the one food that does not die. It does not expire. Growing up, he'd always be mixing up almonds or turmeric or gram flower with milk to cure a cough or a cold.

Rupi Kaur

die dad flower food

Growing up, I naturally embraced who I was, but I was always battling with myself. So I spent half my time being proud of being a woman and the other half completely hating it.

Rupi Kaur

woman myself proud time

Feeling 'ugly' or 'unattractive' seeps into your life like poison, and it affects everything. Feeling worthless does the same. We internalise these limitations, and it takes an internal revolution to get rid of them.

Rupi Kaur

feeling ugly revolution life

With immigrant parents, they've had to sacrifice so much to survive, and they're trying to preserve the culture they lost, so there are just so many boundaries.

Rupi Kaur

parents sacrifice lost culture

My heart is beating, and I'm breathing, and nothing anybody has ever done has changed that.

Rupi Kaur

nothing changed done heart

Really, at the end of the day, the only thing you can control is yourself; the only person you can truly educate is yourself. You have to redefine what beauty is to you so you can't be affected by what people are saying.

Rupi Kaur

yourself day you beauty

We are not outraged by blood. We see blood all the time. Blood is pervasive in movies, television, and video games. Yet, we are outraged by the fact that one openly discusses bleeding from an area that we try to claim ownership over.

Rupi Kaur

video-games movies time television

I feel social media can be very distracting, unhealthy, and harmful to one's self-confidence. I don't even log on to it on my phone except when I post something on Instagram.

Rupi Kaur

phone feel social-media media

If I body-shame a woman, it is more a reflection of me being critical of my body, me not being able to keep up to certain standards I have, and so making sure that the women around me feel the same way.

Rupi Kaur

woman me women reflection

Just because someone tells you they love you, it doesn't mean they actually do.

Rupi Kaur

just-because someone you love

I think social media is... really cool in the sense that I don't think that a writer like me would've found a readership if maybe Instagram wasn't there.

Rupi Kaur

cool think me social-media

Why are brown women bullying brown women for body hair? Why are brown women bullying brown women for the same traits we all have?

Rupi Kaur

women bullying body hair

I like B.C. because it's so beautiful, but I think Toronto's the greatest place because every corner of the world is here.

Rupi Kaur

place think beautiful world

I love Roald Dahl, Sharon Olds, Nizar Qabbani, who is a poet, and Junot Diaz.

Rupi Kaur

i-love who poet love

My favourite character in fiction was probably either James from 'James and the Giant Peach' or Ender from 'Ender's Game.' They were just ordinary people who were living under various amounts of struggle, and just to follow their journeys and see them break out of that and live extraordinary lives - I think that gave me a lot of hope as a kid.

Rupi Kaur

me hope character people

How do you redefine love when your idea of love is something that's so violent? When your idea of passion is anger, how do you fix that?

Rupi Kaur

you passion anger love

I was always writing for myself. I wrote what I needed to write and hear - that's what makes it powerful.

Rupi Kaur

myself always powerful writing

There have been articles saying that all women need to read my book. I ask, why not all men? In fact, that would be even more valuable because we women want to sit down with men and tell them - this is how we feel, this is what we go through.

Rupi Kaur

feel women men book

I want to leave behind a literary legacy.

Rupi Kaur

behind leave legacy want