Quotes From "Kartography" By 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 else's hands are. She smiled and said, there was a time I thought that way, too. But at the heart of the romance is the knowledge that those hands may wander off elsewhere, but somehow through luck or destiny or plain blind groping they'll find a way back to you, and maybe you'll be smart enough then to be grateful for everything that's still possible, in spit of your own weaknesses- and his. . Kamila Shamsie

I'll fall.'' You wont fall.'' I'll fall. I'll fall and I'll die.' As I said it, I could see it happening. The foot stepping on air, pulling the rest of my body with it, tree limbs breaking as I plummeted down. 'No, ' he said, his voice assured, 'You'd never do that to me. 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 affection flowing back and forth. Kamila Shamsie

They adore you beacause they think you offer up your friendship and ask for nothing in return. But that's not true-' He took a deep breath. 'You do ask for something. You ask that we never expect you to need us. Kamila Shamsie

I didn’t tell him that I grew up in an ugly city that taught me how to look between dust and rubbish and potholes to find a splinter of glass that looked like unmelting ice, beautiful in its defiance of the sun. Kamila Shamsie

I still hear the world spinning. Kamila Shamsie

Come on! Think of Miandad hitting that six off Sharma. If he could do that, you can do this. 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’re in Karachi now Kamila Shamsie

Can angels lie spine to spine? If not, how they must envy us humans Kamila Shamsie

This is the worst of our ways of remembering--this tendency to prod the crust of anecdote in the hope of releasing a gush of piping-hot symbolism. 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

If I wasn't me, you wouldn't be you. Kamila Shamsie

How do you eat your roots? Kamila Shamsie

All around us, Karachi kept moving 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