Quotes from Ishmael Beah

I concluded to myself that if I were the hunter, I would shoot the monkey so that it would no longer have the chance to put other hunters in the same predicament.

These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new life, which trigger memories from the past. (page 20)

The sun's brightness painted our shadows on the ground.

I was glad to see other faces and at the same time disappointed that the war had destroyed the enjoyment of the very experience of meeting people.

If you're alive, then there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die.

This days one must be careful to avoid awakening the pain of another.

On our way back to her house, I didn't look at the city lights any longer. I looked into the sky and felt as if the moon was following us. When I was a child, my grandmother told me that the sky speaks to those who look and listen to it. She said, "In the sky there are always answers and explanations for everything: every pain, every suffering, joy, and confusion." That night I wanted the sky to talk to me.

We walked into the arms of the forest...

This isn't your fault, you know. It really isn't. You'll get though this. (page 151)

We danced and laughed into the morning. But gradually we stopped. It was as if we all knew that we could be happy for only a brief moment.

Sometimes a story does not make immediate sense—one has to listen and keep it in one's heart, in one's blood, until the day it will become useful.

I knew I could never forget my past, but I wanted to stop talking about it so that I would be fully present in my new life.

Children played guessing games, telling each other whether the gun fired was and AK-47, a G3, an RPG, or a machine gun.

This is one of the consequences of the civil war. People stopped trusting each other, and every stranger became an enemy. Even people who knew you became extremely careful about how they related or spoke to you. (page 37)

This was one of the consequences of the civil war. People stopped trusting each other, and every stranger became an enemy.

We all knew that we could grieve only for a short while in order to continue staying alive.

We can be rehabilitated," I would emphasize, and point to myself as an example. I would always tell people that I believe children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance.

I didn't know what to do in my happy state. I was still hesitant to let myself let go, because I still believed in the fragility of happiness.

It was not easy being a soldier, but we just had to do it. I have been rehabilitated now, so don't be afraid of me. I am not a soldier anymore; I am a child.

We had not only lost our childhood in the war but our lives had been tainted by the same experiences that still caused us great pain and sadness.

My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be killed. The extent of my thoughts didn't go much beyond that. We had been fighting for over two years, and killing had become a daily activity. I felt no pity for anyone.

You can only threaten someone with hell if they have never had hell

They always shared equally, even if all they had was a handful of nuts or a piece of fruit. Today she had brought back fried fish and stewed onions with bread and other things that you would not put together if you had the luxury of considering the pleasure of the mouth.

That morning we thanked the men who had helped bury Saidu. You will always know where he is laid, one of the men said. I nodded in agreement, but I know that the chances of coming back to the village were slim, as we had no control over our future. We know only how to survive.