“ Character is just an invention, but it's an invention that serves as both reason and justification for our behaviour. - Broken Verses Kamila Shamsie
“ Abdullah to Kim Burton: "War is like disease. Until you've had it, you don't know it. But no. That's a bad comparison. At least with disease everyone thinks it might happen to them one day. You have a… Kamila Shamsie
“ We should have stories in common, I found myself thinking. We should have stories, and jokes no one understands, and memories that we know will stay alive because neither of us will let the other forg… Kamila Shamsie
“ Why have the English remained to English? Throughout India's history conquerors have come from elsewhere, and all of them --- Turk, Arab, Hun, Mongol, Persian --- have become Indian. If --- when ---th… Kamila Shamsie
“ Coming back to Karachi is like stepping into the sea again after months on land. How easily you float, how peaceful is the sense of being borne along, and how familiar the sound of the water lapping a… Kamila Shamsie
“ There’s a ghost of a dream that you don’t even try to shake free off because you’re too in love with the way she haunts you. Kamila Shamsie
“ Grief was the deal God struck with the angel of death, who wanted an unpassable river to separate the living from the dead; grief the bridge that would allow the dead to flit among the living, their f… Kamila Shamsie
“ Bijli fails in the dead of night / Won’t help to call “I need a light” / You’re in Karachi now / Oh, oh you’re in Karachi now. / Night is falling and you just cant see / Is this illusion or KESC / You… Kamila Shamsie
“ If the greatest loss of his life is the loss of a dream he's always known to be a dream, then he's among the fortunate ones. Kamila Shamsie
“ We never actually have serious conversations about anything for more than 20 seconds. So there’s a beautiful superficiality to our relationship which sometimes gets covered up by all the genuine affec… Kamila Shamsie
“ My ex calls the ochre winter 'autumn' as we queue to hear dock boys play jazz fugues in velvet dark.— Broken Verses Kamila Shamsie
“ Her definition of romance was absentminded intimacy, the way someone else's hand stray to your plate of food.I replied: no, that's just friendship; romance is always knowing exactly where that someone… Kamila Shamsie
“ For a second I was almost jealous of the clouds. Why was he looking to them for an escape when I was right here beside him? Kamila Shamsie
“ The world won't get more or less terrible if we're indoors somewhere with a mug of hot chocolate. Kamila Shamsie
“ Yes, I know everything can disappear in a flash of light. That doesn’t make anything less valuable. Kamila Shamsie
