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To my daughter I will say, ‘when the men come, set yourself on fire.’

Warsan Shire

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Warsan Shire
Age: 36
Born: 1988
Born: January 1
Poet
Writer
Republic of Kenya
Daughter
Fire
Come
Men

More quotes by Warsan Shire

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Light attracts light. But sometimes your light attracts moths and your warmth attracts parasites. Protect your space and energy
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I have my mother’s mouth and my father’s eyes on my face they are still together.
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I am a lover without a lover. I am lovely and lonely and I belong deeply to myself.
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Perhaps, the problem is not the intensity of your love, but the quality of the people you are loving.
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There is no intimacy like that between two women who have chosen to be sisters.
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My favourite people, biggest inspirations and closest friends are all women. Not a coincidence.
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Mother says there are locked rooms inside all women, kitchen of love, bedroom of grief, bathroom of apathy. Sometimes, the men, they come with keys, and sometimes the men, they come with hammers.
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Your mouth is a lonely place but I keep coming back.
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I think in Somali, I cuss in Somali, when I'm afraid I reach for somali and this language is very rich, very filling. It's an unflinching language the crudest most terrible things sound perfectly normal in Somali.
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You are terrifying, and strange, and beautiful. Something not everyone knows how to love.
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Later that night, I held an atlas on my lap, ran my fingers across the whole world, and whispered, ‘where does it hurt?’ It answered, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.
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Make peace with your body, it's not manmade, there are no flaws, there are no mistakes.
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At the end of the day, it isn’t where I came from. Maybe home is somewhere I’m going and never have been before.
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The ego hurts you like this: you become obsessed with the one person who does not love you. blind to the rest who do.
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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.
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Don't assume, ask. Be kind. Tell the truth. Don't say anything you can't stand behind fully. Have integrity. Tell people how you feel.
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Document the moments you feel most in love with yourself - what you're wearing, who you're around, what you're doing. Recreate and repeat.
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I tore up and ate my own passport in an airport hotel once. I'm bloated with language I can’t afford to forget.
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I won't glorify or romanticise heartbreak, for me it was a kind of death and I was forced to keep living.
Warsan Shire
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I tend to the wound so often, it never heals.
Warsan Shire