47 Quotes by Laila Lalami

My mother had to leave many traditions behind and the more time passed, the more they mattered to her.

In Arabic, the name Guadalajara evoked a valley of stones, a valley my ancestors had settled more than eight hundred years earlier. They had carried the disease of empire to Spain, the Spaniards had brought it to the new continent, and someday the people of the new continent would plant it elsewhere. That was the way of the world.

From that blighted time came the saying: when bellies speak, reason is lost. There.

No lies are more seductive than the ones we use to console ourselves.

But life should not be traded for gold – a simple lesson, which I had had to learn twice.

Every story needs a villain, she said grimly.

Historical novels, in particular, allow us to relive the past without the neatness of history, and with all the complexity of the present.

It is easy to blame the cacique, Tahacha said. But he is only a man; he derives his power from other men, who will follow him for only as long as they believe in him. It.

He warned me that trade would open the door to greed and greed was an inconsiderate guest; it would bring its evil relations with it.