58 Quotes by Dinaw Mengestu

History does influence our lives – every moment. We never sort of live our lives in a linear fashion. We always have these memories and these images from our past that sometimes were not even aware of, and they sort of shape who we are.

It’s hard sometimes to remember why we do anything in the first place. It’s nice to think there’s a purpose, or even a real decision that turns everything in one direction, but that’s not always true, is it? We just fall into our lives.

The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears is very much about America – it just happens to have African and Ethiopian characters, and in fact, it happens to have more characters who are not Ethiopian than who are.

What was it my father used to say? A bird stuck between two branches gets bitten on both wings. I would like to add my own saying to the list now, Father: a man stuck between two worlds lives and dies alone.

What I didn’t know until then was that loving someone and feeling loved in return was the best exercise for the heart, the strength training needed to do more than simply make it through life.

You see, at the beginning we weren’t fighters. We weren’t yellers or throwers, even if we eventually came to be. It would take time and much deeper wounds for us to get to that point.

There is nothing so easily remade as our definitions of ourselves.

Reality had settled in, and they’re both still waiting to recover.

There’s something physical that changes with a person’s appearance when they suddenly open up to you.