“That's what you do in America: you smile at people you don't know and you smile at people you don't even like and you smile for no reason.”
“That's what you do in America: you smile at people you don't know and you smile at people you don't even like and you smile for no reason.”
NoViolet Bulawayo
“And so the spirits just gazed at us with eyes milked dry of care.”
NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names“If you are stealing something it’s better if it’s small and hideable or something you can eat quickly and be done with, like guavas. This way, people can’t see you with the thing to be reminded that you are a shameless thief and that you stole it from them, so I don’t know what the white people were trying to do in the first place, stealing not just a tiny piece but a whole country. Who can ever forget you stole something like that?”
NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names“With all this snow, with the sun not there, with the cold and dreariness, this place doesn't look like my America, doesn't even look real. It's like we are in a terrible story, like we're in the crazy parts of the Bible, there where God is busy punishing people for their sins and is making them miserable with all the weather. The sky, for example, has stayed white all this time I have been here, which tells you that something is not right. Even the stones know that a sky is supposed to be blue, like our sky back home, which is blue, so blue you can spray Clorox on it and wipe it with a paper towel and it wouldn't even come off.”
NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names“I am careful not to look anyone in the face because I don't want them to see the shame in my eyes, and I also don't want to see the laughter in theirs.”
NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names“...and the women spread their ntsaroz and sit on one side, the men on the other, like they are two different rivers that are not supposed to meet.”
NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names“We are all watching and not knowing what to do because when grown-ups cry, it's not like you can ask them what's wrong, or tell them to shut up; there are just no words for a grown-up's tears.”
NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names“[Jesus Christ] used to have blue eyes but I painted them brown like mine and everybody’s, to make him normal.”
NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names“You want Change, today we'll show you Change!Here's your democracy, your human rights, eat it, eat eat eat!”
NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names“That's what you do in America: you smile at people you don't know and you smile at people you don't even like and you smile for no reason.”
NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names“this place doesn't look like my America”
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