Suheir Hammad Quotes & Sayings

Writing must always have intention because words have power. — Suheir Hammad

War and tooth enameled
salted lemon childhoods
All colors run, none of us solid
Don't look for shadow behind me
I carry it within
I live cycles of light and darkness — Suheir Hammad

A woman will tell you
every home she has ever inhabited
has been broken into
starting with her body — Suheir Hammad

Your war drum ain't / louder than this breath. — Suheir Hammad

I cried when i saw those
buildings collapse on themselves like a broken heart. — Suheir Hammad

I came from a traditional immigrant family where education meant there were only a few valid paths: doctor or lawyer - and I didn't want to be either one. — Suheir Hammad

Do not fear what has blown up. If you must, fear the unexploded. — Suheir Hammad

I will not dance to your war drum! — Suheir Hammad

Life is a right, not collateral or casual. — Suheir Hammad

In the world, it will be women, mostly colored and poor. women will have to bury children, and support themselves through grief. — Suheir Hammad

I am so old-fashioned. I've never lived with a man. I am completely about the independence of paying my own rent. — Suheir Hammad

I do not know how bad a life has to break in order to kill.
I have never been so hungry that I willed hunger.
I have never been so angry as to want to control a gun over a pen.
Not really. Even as a woman, as a Palestinian, as a broken human being.
Never this broken. — Suheir Hammad

The machine will grind you down, but the machine is not bigger than the imagination. Rome fell in a day. We know this. — Suheir Hammad

I understand now my father really thought he was doing me good. Education means a lot to Palestinians. We've become some of the most educated people in the world through our diaspora. We've had to be. When you ain't got land, your degree may be your only solid ground. May father felt (feels) that being a doctor would give me security. How can I explain that I'm not safe from anything if I don't write? — Suheir Hammad

One more person ask me if i knew the hijackers.
one more motherfucker ask me what navy my brother is in.
one more person assume no arabs or muslims were killed. one more person
assume they know me, or that i represent a people.
or that a people represent an evil. or that evil is as simple as a
flag and words on a page. — Suheir Hammad

I've read too many books to believe what I am told. — Suheir Hammad

I will dance and resist and dance and persist and dance. This heartbeat is louder than death. — Suheir Hammad

I think of feminism as a socially just and imaginative world. — Suheir Hammad