32 Quotes by Loung Ung

I think how the world is still somehow beautiful even when I feel no joy at being alive within it.

I am six years old and instead of celebrating with birthday cakes, I chew on a piece of charcoal.

On previous trips the pirates have stolen valuables, killed people, raped and abducted girls...the women work frantically to ugly themselves up by smearing black charcoal paste on their faces and bodies. With ashen faces, some of the younger, prettier girls reach into the bags we have vomited into and scoop out handfuls of it to smear on their hair and clothes.

[The Khmer Rogue soldier] screams a loud, shrill cry, that piercing my heart like a stake, and I imagine that this, maybe, is how Pa died. The soldier's head hangs, bobbing up and down like a chicken's... The woman raises her hammer again. I almost feel pity for him. But it is too late to let him go, it is too late to go back. It is too late for my parents and my country.

This is what the war has done to me. Now I want to destroy because of it. There is such hate and rage inside me now. The Angkar has taught me to hate so deeply that I now know I have the power to destroy and kill.

No one knows how precious you are. You are a diamond in the rough and with a little polishing, you will shine,” Pa whispers softly.

As Pa speaks, I know he thinks someone in our family has stolen the rice. The story of the rat is not true and everyone knows it. Convinced that he realises it was me, I hide my eyes from him. Shame burns my hand like a hot iron branding me for all to see; Pa's favourite child stole from the family. As if to rescue me,Geak wakes up and her screams of hunger interrupt the incident.

Maya put it out there, ... She said 'I am not going to be ashamed of somebody else's act of violence.' The soldiers should be ashamed, not me.

I thought the world really hated me. I spent four hours a day being taught that people wanted me dead.