Sometimes it’s easy to lose faith in people. And sometimes one act of kindness is all it takes to give you hope again.
What’s the good of being true to your religion on the outside, if you don’t change what’s on the inside,were it really counts ?
I just don’t know what I’d do without a brain, Simone!” I say. “I mean, what’s a person without one?
Life isn’t like the movies. People don’t change overnight. people don’t go from arrogant and self-righteous to ashamed and remorseful. They don’t suddenly give in when they’ve spent years taking out. No doesn’t magically become a Yes.
I want to be with one person in my life. I want to know that the guy I spend the rest of my life with is the first person I share something so intimate and exciting with.
It’s like one of those scenes from a feel-good Hollywood movie. Where everybody is happy and nobody’s hair fizzes in the wind. Where it doesn’t rain, your shoes stay comfortable all day, and everybody’s jokes are funny.
True friends are those who love you not in spite of your faults and imperfections, but because of them.
You never feel good when you lie. It doesn’t matter how much you want something, if you lie to somebody you love, and they actually, sincerely believe you, you feel like a cockroach that needs some serious Raid action.
Parents. Honestly. Sometimes they really do think the world revolves around them.
You? Nervous? Man, you’ve got more balls than any girl I’ve ever known!’ ‘You’ve known some weird girls, then,” I say, raising an eyebrow at him.
I wasn’t rebellious. Other friends had far stricter parents and where there wasn’t a relationship of respect and communication, they were usually the opposite; kids go to the other extreme.
The hijab, or sikh turban, or Jewish skullcap are all explicit symbols, but they do not represent a threat or affront to others, and have no bearing on the competence, skills and intelligence of a person.
In a multicultural, diverse society there are countless ways in which people negotiate the everyday lived experience and reality of diversity.
The easiest way for readers to connect with characters and feel sympathy is to make the character entertaining, sympathetic and likeable.
My family are observant Muslims, but I’ve come to the faith through an intellectual conviction, and that’s something that they’ve taught me. It’s never been forced upon me. They’ve given me a very strong identity as an Australian Muslim.