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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
With you, intimacy colors my voice. Even 'hello' sounds like 'come here'.
Warsan Shire
I am a lover without a lover. I am lovely and lonely and I belong deeply to myself.
Warsan Shire
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.
Warsan Shire
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.
Warsan Shire
I won't glorify or romanticise heartbreak, for me it was a kind of death and I was forced to keep living.
Warsan Shire
My favourite people, biggest inspirations and closest friends are all women. Not a coincidence.
Warsan Shire
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.
Warsan Shire
I tend to the wound so often, it never heals.
Warsan Shire
I tore up and ate my own passport in an airport hotel once. I'm bloated with language I can’t afford to forget.
Warsan Shire
Perhaps, the problem is not the intensity of your love, but the quality of the people you are loving.
Warsan Shire
Give your daughters difficult names. Give your daughters names that command the full use of the tongue. My name makes you want to tell me the truth. My name doesn't allow me to trust anyone that cannot pronounce it right.
Warsan Shire
Apathy is the same as war, it all kills you, she says. Slow like cancer in the breast or fast like a machete in the neck.
Warsan Shire
I have my mother’s mouth and my father’s eyes on my face they are still together.
Warsan Shire
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.
Warsan Shire
Every mouth you’ve ever kissed was just practice. All the bodies you’ve ever undressed and ploughed in to were preparing you for me. I don’t mind tasting them in the memory of your mouth. Was it a long journey? Did it take you long to find me? You’re here now, welcome home.
Warsan Shire
My alone feels so good, I'll only have you if you're sweeter than my solitude.
Warsan Shire
I belong deeply to myself.
Warsan Shire
When I love, I love: wholly, thoroughly, completely, drowning in everything. Every glance can be a conversation, eyes just playing and saying what needs to be said. Silence is loud, and the air becomes heavy. I want you. I want all of you.
Warsan Shire
Two people who were once very close can without blame or grand betrayal become strangers. Perhaps this is the saddest thing in the world.
Warsan Shire
There is no intimacy like that between two women who have chosen to be sisters.
Warsan Shire