Quote

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

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Warsan Shire
Age: 36
Born: 1988
Born: January 1
Poet
Writer
Republic of Kenya
Normal
Thinking
Afraid
Crudest
Terrible
Somali
Rich
Cuss
Sound
Unflinching
Language
Filling
Perfectly
Things
Reach
Think

More quotes by Warsan Shire

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I know a few things to be true. I do not know where I am going, where I have come from is disappearing, I am unwelcome and my beauty is not beauty here. My body is burning with the shame of not belonging, my body is longing.
Warsan Shire
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It's not my responsibility to be beautiful. I'm not alive for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me.
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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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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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You can't make homes out of human beings.
Warsan Shire
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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.
Warsan Shire
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My name is indigenous to my country, it is not easy to pronounce, it takes effort to say correctly and I am absolutely in love with the sound of it and its meaning. Also, it's not the kind of name you baby, slip into sweet talk mid sentence, late night phone conversation, whisper into the receiver kind of name, so, of that I am glad.
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.
Warsan Shire
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You are terrifying, and strange, and beautiful. Something not everyone knows how to love.
Warsan Shire
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Perhaps, the problem is not the intensity of your love, but the quality of the people you are loving.
Warsan Shire
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To my daughter I will say, ‘when the men come, set yourself on fire.’
Warsan Shire
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My favourite people, biggest inspirations and closest friends are all women. Not a coincidence.
Warsan Shire
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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.
Warsan Shire
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I belong deeply to myself.
Warsan Shire
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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
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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.
Warsan Shire
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There is no intimacy like that between two women who have chosen to be sisters.
Warsan Shire
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I want to love, but my hair smells of war and running and running.
Warsan Shire
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Your mouth is a lonely place but I keep coming back.
Warsan Shire