It's not my responsibility to be beautiful. I'm not alive for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me.

I tore up and ate my own passport in an airport hotel once. I'm bloated with language I can’t afford to forget.

You can't make homes out of human beings.

I know a few things to be true. I do not know where I am going, where I have come from is disappearing, I am unwelcome and my beauty is not beauty here. My body is burning with the shame of not belonging, my body is longing.

Give your daughters difficult names. Give your daughters names that command the full use of the tongue. My name makes you want to tell me the truth. My name doesn't allow me to trust anyone that cannot pronounce it right.

The ego hurts you like this: you become obsessed with the one person who does not love you. blind to the rest who do.

I’m overwhelmed. My biggest downfall is my brightest blessing, I feel too much, all the time. Ya Allah, if it’ll keep my heart soft, break my heart every day.