Randa Abdel-Fattah Quotes & Sayings

For me, religious festivals and celebrations have become an important way to teach my children about how we can transform living with diversity from the superficial 'I eat ethnic food', to something dignified, mutually respectful and worthwhile. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

Everything is relative. If you want to understand a problem you look at its cause. You don't look at its manifestation. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

You? Nervous? Man, you've got more balls than any girl I've ever known!'
'You've known some weird girls, then, I say, raising an eyebrow at him. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

I wasn't rebellious. Other friends had far stricter parents and where there wasn't a relationship of respect and communication, they were usually the opposite; kids go to the other extreme. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

I've been writing stories since I was a kid. I love writing stories. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

We are, at almost every point of our day, immersed in cultural diversity: faces, clothes, smells, attitudes, values, traditions, behaviours, beliefs, rituals. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

To the Muslim woman, the hijab provides a sense of empowerment. It is a personal decision to dress modestly according to the command of a genderless Creator; to assert pride in self, and embrace one's faith openly, with independence and courageous conviction. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

I'm starting to realize that being born into this social world is a little like being born into clean air. You take it in as soon as you breathe, and pretty soon you don't even realize that while you can walk around with clear lungs, other people are wearing oxygen masks just to survive. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

Mr. Taylor has this habit of emphasizing his point by using three adjectives or verbs in a row. 'Class, you must know,' Simon begins [imitating] in a droning voice, flinging her arms around at every syllable, 'that should you fail to understand, to comprehend, to FEEL the power of the Constitution's words you will lose, forfeit, SURRENDER your ability to master the meaning of this most important document. You must read with an open mind in order to nurture, care for, and FOSTER your citizenship. Do I make myself clear, succinct, and COMPREHENSIBLE? — Randa Abdel-Fattah

What's the good of being true to your religion on the outside, if you don't change what's on the inside,were it really counts ? — Randa Abdel-Fattah

Belief means nothing without actions — Randa Abdel-Fattah

Religious celebrations, and the good will, high spirits and generosity that mark them, are wonderful occasions for understanding the potential of 'everyday multiculturalism', and how people from diverse faiths can connect and show they care, rather than go down parallel, sometimes hostile, roads. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

I do most of my reading on the train ride to and from work. But I always have a book in my handbag so that I can read at any time, anywhere. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

Your perception is riveting, Amal," he says in a bored and sarcastic tone, dropping the note down on my desk. "It's comforting to know that there are people in my class who have the maturity and intelligence to make derogatory comments about other people's external appearances."
Now what am I supposed to say to that?
"What do you have to say for yourself?"
Friggin' mind reader. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

Yeah, don't you take a break?'
'I don't have time for breaks.'
'That's the whole point of a break. When you've got no time, you need a break. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

Are you still doing that crap?" I ask.
"You can't even do it properly," Eileen says.
"Just a matter of practice," Simone says.
"Wow! Practicing how to poison yourself and make your breath reek like the fart of a seagull!" Eileen cries. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

Spirituality is deeply personal. Yet, society has to face the fact that certain faiths celebrate spirituality through an overt expression of inner convictions. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

Too many people look at it as though it (the hijab) has bizarre powers sewn into its microfibers. Powers that transform Muslim girls into UCOs (Unidentified Covered Objects), which turn Muslim girls from an 'us' to a 'them. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

The one-eyed is always beauty in the land of the blind. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

If I like a book, I tend to read the author's entire collection. But I choose mainly through personal recommendations, general word of mouth and book reviews. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

You should take notes whenever you hear interesting or original language. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

I just don't know what I'd do without a brain, Simone!" I say. "I mean, what's a person without one? — Randa Abdel-Fattah

Sometimes it's easy to lose faith in people. And sometimes one act of kindness is all it takes to give you hope again. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

When it comes to the hijab - why to wear it, whether to wear it, how to wear it - there is theology and then there is practice, and there is huge diversity in both. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

Parents. Honestly. Sometimes they really do think the world revolves around them. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

I've always loved writing, and the impulse for me is storytelling. I don't sit down and think: 'What political message can I sell?' I love the creativity of it. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

I want to be with one person in my life. I want to know that the guy I spend the rest of my life with is the first person I share something so intimate and exciting with. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

Most Muslim women know it is fear and curiosity that cause people to stare. They know it is ignorance and stereotypes that cause people to suppose that a piece of material covering the hair strips a woman of the ability to speak English, pursue a career, work a remote control. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

That's why when Peter started talking to me in homeroom this morning, i soaked up his attention like a doughnut dipped in coffee. The fact that his comments have left me soggy and wilted doesn't matter. That's the price you pay when you withdraw to the safety of anonymity — Randa Abdel-Fattah

My family are observant Muslims, but I've come to the faith through an intellectual conviction, and that's something that they've taught me. It's never been forced upon me. They've given me a very strong identity as an Australian Muslim. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

That's when this warm feeling buzzes through you and you smile to yourself, knowing God's watching you, knowing that He knows you're trying to be strong to please Him. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

The easiest way for readers to connect with characters and feel sympathy is to make the character entertaining, sympathetic and likeable. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

There is more to this hijab than the whole modesty thing. These girls are strangers to me but I know that we all felt an amazing connection, a sense that this cloth binds us in some kind of universal sisterhood. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

But persistent name calling? that prolongs hurt. It stretches out. Each nasty word stretches the rubber band further away until finally, one day, it snaps back at you with maximum impact — Randa Abdel-Fattah

We have to choices in this world; we either try to survive or to give up. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

Once upon a time, a fisherman went out to sea. He caught many fish and threw them all into a large bucket on his boat. The fish were not yet dead, so the man decided to ease their suffering by killing them swiftly. While he worked, the cold air made his eyes water. One of the wounded fish saw this and said to the other: "What a kind heart this fisherman has- see how he cries for us." The other fish replied: "Ignore his tears and watch what he is doing with his hands. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

Yes, Simone, he is mentally unstable for being attracted to you. call the men in white suits. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

Life isn't like the movies. People don't change overnight. people don't go from arrogant and self-righteous to ashamed and remorseful. They don't suddenly give in when they've spent years taking out. No doesn't magically become a Yes. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

With my human rights advocacy, that's always been through my writing. I've always tried to write articles and contribute to journals and a lot of online journals - about human rights, especially Palestinian human rights. I find the time to do things to do things I'm passionate about, because I find enjoyment in them. I just have to juggle. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

A woman's body is her body and what she wears or does not wear is her choice. Get over it and move on. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

And it's when I'm standing there this morning, in my PJs and a hijab, next to my mum and my dad, kneeling before God, that I feel a strange sense of calm. I feel like nothing can hurt me, and nothing else matters. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

It is time Australian Muslims stop being treated as negotiable citizens in their own country. It is time people stop 'tolerating' us, presuming some right to decide if we have a place in our own home. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

One of the first serious attempts I made to write a novel was when I was in Grade 6 and I had read 'Matilda.' I wrote my own version and my teacher had it bound and permitted me to read it to the class - cementing my love of reading, writing and Roald Dahl! — Randa Abdel-Fattah

When you exist in the centre of a debate, as a topic, a hypothesis - otherised and stigmatised - you become the prop in a proposition. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

It's like one of those scenes from a feel-good Hollywood movie. Where everybody is happy and nobody's hair fizzes in the wind. Where it doesn't rain, your shoes stay comfortable all day, and everybody's jokes are funny. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

True friends are those who love you not in spite of your faults and imperfections, but because of them. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

You never feel good when you lie. It doesn't matter how much you want something, if you lie to somebody you love, and they actually, sincerely believe you, you feel like a cockroach that needs some serious Raid action. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

I couldn't stop bawling, watching the towers come down. it was a terrible thing to happen. And a terrible thing to realize that I don't sit though the nigh crying when such horrors happen all the time. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

It seems Palestinians can't win. The language of peace negotiations has always been predicated on a representation that Palestinians are violent and that is why Israel behaves as it does. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

The hijab, or sikh turban, or Jewish skullcap are all explicit symbols, but they do not represent a threat or affront to others, and have no bearing on the competence, skills and intelligence of a person. — Randa Abdel-Fattah

In a multicultural, diverse society there are countless ways in which people negotiate the everyday lived experience and reality of diversity. — Randa Abdel-Fattah