Quotes from Mari Serebrov

If I'm going to spend a lifetime writing my story, I want it to mean something.

It takes courage to live in the midst of hate. And it requires strength to keep that hatred from eating your soul.

The older I get, the more I realize that what other people think about me has little to do with who I am. … We can't change other people, and we can't force them to see us the way we would like to be seen.

Racism defends our greed, frees us from self-control and makes others responsible for our failings. It is an attempt to silence the guilt so we can look in the mirror.

If I'm going to spend a lifetime writing my story, I want it to mean something.

Looking backward should never divert our path to one of hatred and bitterness, for those steps lead nowhere but to destruction. To live in hatred is to miss the point of living.

The older I get, the more I realize that what other people think about me has little to do with who I am. All of us – Jews, Catholics, Lutherans, even the godless – will always be seen by others through their personal spectacles of perception.

A round house keeps snakes away because it makes no shadows where snakes can hide," Tjikuu says. "Herero who build square houses like white people are foolish. Round houses bring good luck. They're like nature.

The eagle is your mother, your aunt, your girl cousins – the eagle is any woman. Maybe even a white woman. When you have trouble, go to another woman. She will understand. And she can help you.

Missionary thinks he's telling the truth," Tjikuu says. "But he doesn't understand the ancestors because he has forgotten his own. We should feel sorry for Missionary. People without ancestors are people without yesterday or tomorrow.

It is up to us to choose what is right. No one can make us eat a lie," she answers.