Quotes from Randa Abdel-Fattah

At [my old school], when teachers stood up to address us in assemblies, it was to urge us to study hard, stay focused, remain resilient, set goals, seek support. If there was a "leader," she was the exception, not the norm. Listening to [the adults here], I wonder if things would be different if we spent thirteen years being told that we were born to lead, and that the only thing that would ever hold us back would be a limited imagination.

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.

A reminder that for some people in this world, freedom and ordinary aren't basic rights. They're luxuries you should never take for granted.

I wear my politics like hand-me down clothes: some bits feel like they don't fit me properly, but I expect I'll grow into them, trusting that because they're from my parents they've come from a good source.

The scariest thing about people like Terrence and my parents is not that they can be cruel. It's that they can be kind too.

Bad things happen when good people remain silent.

I've never done grey before, but I suspect it's one of those things that, tried once, you can never resile from.

Unrequited love is better than returned love that fails. That way I can dream.

Words. And meaning. You can't own one and not the other.

It's so much easier to live in a world where everything is black and white. I've never done grey before, but I suspect it's one of those things that, tried once, you can never go back.

I want to tell him that when we were in the camps waiting for a boat we spoke about what we imagined Australia would be like. Kangaroos, koalas, wide open spaces. Then, when we arrived, we were locked up and the images we had shrank smaller and smaller until Australia became tiny patches of sky beyond the barbed wire.

How naive she must be to think that life is so safe and predictable that you can survive without some level of independence and autonomy.

I know I've got to work twice as hard as everybody else because I've got twice the distance to run just to catch up.

I think some people just can't handle people who go about their life genuinely not caring about what other people think.

Before Mina, my life was like a complicated jigsaw puzzle. Mina's come along and pushed the puzzle upside down onto the floor. I have to start all over again, figuring out where the pieces go. But some of the pieces to the puzzle don't seem to fit the way they used to. The thought terrifies me.

But then some people showed me: That anger is good But with action is better. That remembering is good But with hope it is better. That change is good But with discovery it is better. That questioning is good But with trust it is better. That resisting is good But sometimes those you resist do not matter. And that standing up is good But standing up alongside others is better.

A pang of love for my country suddenly strikes through me. That lazy way the trees and bushes dot the land. The effortless beauty of the mountains and the secrets hidden within them.

I'm sorry for what happened to your family and your people, but why must we be punished?

You know what? Who cares what normal is, Simone. Let's protest. From now on we're the anti-normal, anti-average, anti-standard. You can eat when you want to, I'll wear what I want, and we'll die with a packet of chips in our hand and a tablecloth on our head.

Don't be silly. There are times freak out about exams and uni and all that stuff. And there are times I'm ready to take on my parents, the vegetable and animal kingdom, the solar system, the entire universe. No one can be gutsy all the time. Imagine how obnoxious and snotty they'd be.

But what's the good of being true to your religion on the outside, if you don't change what's on the inside, where it really counts? I've been kidding myself. Putting on the hijab isn't the end of the journey. It's just the beginning of it.

Not at all. I mean, yeah, you're weird by teenage standards. But weird in a good way. I mean, it's your life, your liver, your brain cells. It's weird not to respect choice. Whether you're choosing to get pissed or go sober, or get high on weed or chocolate, everybody's gotta make their own choices.

My hand is cramping up as I go into a whirl writing out rebuttal points. I glance at the audience again and my eyes connect with Tia and for one second, one minuscule nanosecond, I detect we're on the same wavelength: she's also worried we'll lose. It's the only time we're connected together against another object - not each other.

I've been injected with the formula for confidence and butt kicking. Not in spite of my hijab but because of it Because I want to prove to everybody that it's just a piece of material and that I'm here, representing my school, supporting my team, kicking some serious rear ends.