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Top Ishmael Beah Quotes

Browse top 38 most favorite famous quotes and sayings by Ishmael Beah.

Favorite Ishmael Beah Quotes

1. "How many more times do we have to come to terms with death before we find safety?" he asked. He waited a few minutes, but the three of us didn't say anything. He continued: "Every time people come at us with the intention of killing us, I close my eyes and wait for death. Even though I am still alive, I feel like each time I accept death, part of me dies. Very soon I will completely die and all that will be left is my empty body walking with you. It will be quieter than I am." ~ Ishmael Beah
2. "Some nights the sky wept stars that quickly floated and disappeared into the darkness before our wishes could meet them." ~ Ishmael Beah
3. "We must strive to be like the moon.' An old man in Kabati repeated this sentence often... the adage served to remind people to always be on their best behavior and to be good to others. [S]he said that people complain when there is too much sun and it gets unbearably hot, and also when it rains too much or when it is cold. But, no one grumbles when the moon shines. Everyone becomes happy and appreciates the moon in their own special way. Children watch their shadows and play in its light, people gather at the square to tell stories and dance through the night. A lot of happy things happen when the moon shines. These are some of the reasons why we should want to be like the moon." ~ Ishmael Beah
4. "I was still hesitant to let myself let go, because I still believed in the fragility of happiness." ~ Ishmael Beah
5. "If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die." ~ Ishmael Beah
6. "ONE OF THE UNSETTLING THINGS about my journey, mentally, physically, and emotionally, was that I wasn't sure when or where it was going to end." ~ Ishmael Beah
7. "I took out my grenade and put my fingers inside the pin. 'Do you boys want this to be your last meal, or do you want to answer his question?" ~ Ishmael Beah
8. "My conception of New York City came from rap music. I envisioned it as a place where people shot each other on the street and got away with it; no one walked on the streets, rather people drove in their sports cars looking for nightclubs and for violence." ~ Ishmael Beah
9. "My childhood had gone by without my knowing, and it seemed as if my heart had frozen." ~ Ishmael Beah
10. "The sun's brightness painted our shadows on the ground." ~ Ishmael Beah
11. "As a child soldier, your rights are constantly violated." ~ Ishmael Beah
12. "I grew up as a Muslim. I went to an Islamic elementary school. Most of my community was Muslim, so I grew up praying five times a day." ~ Ishmael Beah
13. "In early 1993, when I was 12, I was separated from my family as the Sierra Leone civil war, which began two years earlier, came into my life." ~ Ishmael Beah
14. "I had a very simple, unremarkable and happy life. And I grew up in a very small town. And so my life was made up of, you know, in the morning going to the river to fetch water - no tap water, and no electricity - and, you know, bathing in the river, and then going to school, and playing soccer afterwards." ~ Ishmael Beah
15. "There's so much focus and interest about what happens during war, but very little about what happens when people return to homes and communities that have been destroyed. There's a renewal that happens, but it's a very difficult one." ~ Ishmael Beah
16. "We all find joy and radiance and a reason to move on even in the most dire of circumstances. Even in chaos and madness, there's still a beauty that comes from just the vibrancy of another human spirit." ~ Ishmael Beah
17. "Whenever I speak at the United Nations, UNICEF or elsewhere to raise awareness of the continual and rampant recruitment of children in wars around the world, I come to realize that I still do not fully understand how I could have possibly survived the civil war in my country, Sierra Leone." ~ Ishmael Beah
18. "After I wrote my memoir, 'A Long Way Gone,' I was a bit exhausted. I didn't want to write another memoir; I felt that it might not be sane for one to speak about himself for many, many, many years in a row. At the same time, I felt the story of 'Radiance of Tomorrow' pulling at me because of the first book." ~ Ishmael Beah
19. "As a kid in Africa, you were so connected to nature itself because you went farming, watched the moon out at night, observed how the sky was different, and how the birds chanted different songs in the evening and the morning." ~ Ishmael Beah
20. "For many observers, a child who has known nothing but war, a child for whom the Kalashnikov is the only way to make a living and for whom the bush is the most welcoming community, is a child lost forever for peace and development. I contest this view. For the sake of these children, it is essential to prove that another life is possible." ~ Ishmael Beah
21. "I grew up in Sierra Leone, in a small village where as a boy my imagination was sparked by the oral tradition of storytelling. At a very young age I learned the importance of telling stories - I saw that stories are the most potent way of seeing anything we encounter in our lives, and how we can deal with living." ~ Ishmael Beah
22. "I guess what I'd like to say is that people in Sierra Leone are human beings, just like Americans. They want to send their kids to school; they want to live in peace; they want to have their basic rights of life just like everyone else. I think we all owe an obligation to support people who want to do that." ~ Ishmael Beah
23. "I had gone to a talent show - I was interested in American hip-hop music - with my older brother, to another town, and my town was attacked. I went from having an entire family to the next minute not having anything. It was very painful." ~ Ishmael Beah
24. "I was one of those children forced into fighting at the age of 13, in my country Sierra Leone, a war that claimed the lives of my mother, father and two brothers. I know too well the emotional, psychological and physical burden that comes with being exposed to violence as a child or at any age for that matter." ~ Ishmael Beah
25. "It's exhausting writing nonfiction, particularly when it's personal. It's tiring, always speaking about things that are not necessarily fun retelling." ~ Ishmael Beah
26. "My mother tongue, Mende, is very expressive, very figurative, and when I write, I always struggle to find the English equivalent of things that I really want to say in Mende. For example, in Mende, you wouldn't say 'night came suddenly'; you would say 'the sky rolled over and changed its sides.'" ~ Ishmael Beah
27. "Shakespeare is absolutely big in Africa. I guess he's big everywhere. Growing up, Shakespeare was the thing. You'd learn monologues and you'd recite them. And just like hip-hop, it made you feel like you knew how to speak English really well. You had a mastery of the English language to some extent." ~ Ishmael Beah
28. "The places I come from have such rich languages, such a variety of expression. In Sierra Leone we have about fifteen languages and three dialects. I grew up speaking about seven of them." ~ Ishmael Beah
29. "The thing that really gets to me is that countries are in the news only when things get out of hand. That's when it's newsworthy. When the war ends, it's not newsworthy anymore; no one wants to think about it. Actually, the aftermath is the most important part. It's when people have to rebuild." ~ Ishmael Beah
30. "We all have that capacity to lose our humanity when circumstances force us to do so. It's not specific to people who live in Africa or Latin America or Asia. And equally, we are capable of regaining ourselves." ~ Ishmael Beah
31. "In the sky there are always answers and explanations for everything: every pain, every suffering, joy and confusion." ~ Ishmael Beah
32. "It isn't about knowing the most stories, child. It is about carrying the ones that are most important and passing them along." ~ Ishmael Beah
33. "We must live in the radiance of tomorrow, as our ancestors have suggested in their tales. For what is yet to come tomorrow has possibilities, and we must think of it, the simplest glimpse of that possibility of goodness. That will be our strength. That has always been our strength." ~ Ishmael Beah
34. "I am always quiet so that I know what to say when I must speak." ~ Ishmael Beah
35. "The branches of the trees looked as if they were holding hands and bowing their heads in prayer." ~ Ishmael Beah
36. "This days one must be careful to avoid awakening the pain of another." ~ Ishmael Beah
37. "Who can ever know what path to walk on when all of them are either crooked or broken? One just has to walk." ~ Ishmael Beah
38. "Some people tried to hurt us to protect themselves, their family and communities...This was one of the consequences of civil war. People stopped trusting each other, and every stranger became an enemy. Even people who knew you became extremely careful about how they related or spoke to you." ~ Ishmael Beah

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I think multiple levels of undo would be wonderful, too."
Author: Bill Joy

What Did Ishmael Beah Talk About?

Thin
Hen
Here
Tan
Con
Ear
Child
Ways
Wit
Speak
Ally
Another
Son
Night
Pain
Old
King
Ten
Sky
Grew
Came
End
Wing
Children
Win
Tie
Walk
Stories
Use
Tell
Africa
Self
Ring
Cause
City
Civil
Die
Each
Gone
Happen
Hey
Hum
Lit
Los
Mad
Nation
Pen
America

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