I won’t glorify or romanticise heartbreak, for me it was a kind of death and I was forced to keep living. — Warsan Shire

I learn urgently the architecture of loss then find you again. — Warsan Shire

Later that night i held an atlas in my lap ran my fingers across the whole world and whispered where does it hurt? it answered everywhere everywhere everywhere. — Warsan Shire

Two people who were once very close can without blame or grand betrayal become strangers. Perhaps this is the saddest thing in the world. — Warsan Shire

I’m overwhelmed. My biggest downfall is my brightest blessing, I feel too much, all the time. Ya Allah, if it’ll keep my heart soft, break my heart every day. — Warsan Shire

To my daughter I will say, ‘when the men come, set yourself on fire.’ — Warsan Shire

The ego hurts you like this: you become obsessed with the one person who does not love you. blind to the rest who do. — Warsan Shire

Make love like you have no secrets like you’ve never been left never been hurt like the world don’t owe you a single wretched thing. — Warsan Shire

You were like an ulcer on the inside of my cheek that my tongue could not stop touching. loving you was like watching a stranger clean a week old wound; i felt sick, but i wanted more. — Warsan Shire

I tend to the wound so often, it never heals. — Warsan Shire

My alone feels so good, I’ll only have you if you’re sweeter than my solitude. — Warsan Shire

Don’t assume, ask. Be kind. Tell the truth. Don’t say anything you can’t stand behind fully. Have integrity. Tell people how you feel. — Warsan Shire

Apathy is the same as war, it all kills you, she says. Slow like cancer in the breast or fast like a machete in the neck. — Warsan Shire

Make peace with your body, it’s not manmade, there are no flaws, there are no mistakes. — Warsan Shire

Document the moments you feel most in love with yourself–what you’re wearing, who you’re around, what you’re doing. Recreate and repeat. — Warsan Shire

I am a lover without a lover. I am lovely and lonely and I belong deeply to myself. — Warsan Shire

How far have you walked for men who’ve never held your feet in their laps? — Warsan Shire

We took such care of tomorrow, but died on the way there. — Warsan Shire

It’s not my responsibility to be beautiful. I’m not alive for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me. — Warsan Shire

Mother says there are locked rooms inside all women, kitchen of love, bedroom of grief, bathroom of apathy. Sometimes, the men, they come with keys, and sometimes the men, they come with hammers. — Warsan Shire

I belong deeply to myself. — Warsan Shire

You can’t make homes out of human beings. — Warsan Shire

At the end of the day, it isn’t where I came from. Maybe home is somewhere I’m going and never have been before. — Warsan Shire

All those nights with the phone warming the side of my face like the sun. — Warsan Shire

Perhaps, the problem is not the intensity of your love, but the quality of the people you are loving. — Warsan Shire

I want to make love, but my hair smells of war and running and running. — Warsan Shire

I tore up and ate my own passport in an airport hotel once. I’m bloated with language I can’t afford to forget. — Warsan Shire

There is no intimacy like that between two women who have chosen to be sisters. — Warsan Shire