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Laila Lalami Quotes

born 1968 United States

Laila Lalami (born 1968) is a Moroccan-American novelist, essayist, and professor.

United States
Authors
Educators
Essayists
Novelists

Random Laila Lalami quote

15 quotes

But, he tried to tell himself, maybe this was just a fleeting interest, maybe it would all go away.

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005)

There’s a disconnect between how people imagine their families and how families are in real life.

He needed someone to trustworthy to deal with Faten, and he knew Raouf would not let him down.

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005)

She did not notice the fading afternoon light that lengthened the shadows behind her, framing her body like the arches of a shrine.

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005)

She had to do something for her future—today.

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005)

We're so blinded by our love of the West that we're willing to give them our brightest instead of keeping them here where we need them.

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005)

Better than the Moroccans themselves.

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005)

Lucky Aziz. He curses his own luck.

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005)

He warned me that trade would open the door to greed and greed was an inconsiderate guest; it would bring its evil relations with it. (p58)

The Moor's Account (2014)

I know now that these conquerors, like many others before them, and no doubt like others after, gave speeches not to voice the truth, but to create it. (p8)

The Moor's Account (2014)

He couldn't understand these foreigners. They could go to a nice hotel, have a clean bed, go to the beach or the pool, and here they were in the worst part of town, looking around for something exotic.

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005)

They’re supposed to be the people who support you, who love you no matter what, and the reality is they’re the first people who teach you to cast doubt on yourself, they’re the first people who sometimes don’t have your back…

Nothing new has ever happened to a son of Adam, she said. Everything has already been lived and everything has already been told. If only we listened to the stories. (p52)

The Moor's Account (2014)

When you move into a new place, it does involve a refashioning of the self. We derive our sense of identity at least partly in relation to the landscape around us, in which we’ve grown up..…

A name is precious; it carries inside it a language, a history, a set of traditions, a particular way of looking at the world. Losing it meant losing my ties to all those things too. (p5)

The Moor's Account (2014)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Laila Lalami (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.