Saleem Haddad Quotes & Sayings

After all, aren't housekeepers the bearers of all family secrets — Saleem Haddad

I was finished with assuming the best intentions of those who abandoned me, done trying to assuage my loneliness in barren places. — Saleem Haddad

Oh, I loathe weddings. I loathe sitting down and participating in inane conversations with proud parents and smug couples who all look like they might secretly hate each other. — Saleem Haddad

You know people say the opposite of fear is desire, where we presumably run away from what we fear and toward what we desire. But fear and desire are more complicated than that. There's fear at the heart of every desire and desire at the heart of fear. So I wonder, by desiring Taymour, what exactly are you afraid of? — Saleem Haddad

I loved Taymour because he was from here, because everything in him reminded me of everything here, because to love him was to love this city and its history. And yet I couldn't love him because he was from here and so held ideas of how to be and how to love, which would never fit in with the love that we shared. — Saleem Haddad

... I fell in love with him even more, because I realized I was not just falling in love with Taymour but also with generations of him that connect through history, traits that had been passed down from one generation to the next. I was in love with his ancestry that stretched out for centuries. — Saleem Haddad

But in the midst of this decaying, burning city, there are pockets of hope. It can be found in the tiny dark rooms in underground bars, where women with short hair cheer on men in dresses. It can be felt in abandoned cinemas where anonymous strangers fall in love if only for a few moments, and in the living rooms where families crowd around, drinking sweet black tea and Skyping their homesick relatives so that together they can watch the long, rambling talk shows that go on all night. — Saleem Haddad

Do you think I'm too Westernized?" I asked Leila as we walked back home from the library.
"What do you mean?"
"This guy, Sufyan, says I'm too Westernized."
"The American guy? You're letting an American guy tell you whether you're Arab enough?"
"He's originally Arab - " I began.
"Oh please. Arab Americans are even worse than white people. They look at you like they know you, as if they have an idea of what you're like from stereotypes and their parents' ancient memories. And when you don't conform to their image it terrifies them, because they wear their Arab culture like window dressing but underneath they are as white as snow. — Saleem Haddad

There is no such thing as forcing someone to be free. My obligation is not to my love for him but rather to what this love represents. My obligation is only to myself. Like two parallel lines running alongside each other, Taymour and I could only ever come together if one of us were to break. — Saleem Haddad

We all tell lies to protect our solitude. We deny the truth and present a false image of ourselves to blend into society. — Saleem Haddad

Digging through my roots to understand the way my branches grew. — Saleem Haddad