Banlieue Quotes

#1. I grew up in northern New Jersey - the banlieue of New York - and I now live in Brooklyn. I am separated from my parents by about 50 miles, but really there is almost no distance between us. I speak to them nearly every day.

Jonathan Ames

#2. People only look at you and say, 'You are black and you are from the banlieue,' and all the doors are closed. I had the desire to be something else. If I see a door that is a little open, I will find a way to get through.

Omar Sy

#3. I'm going to slow down a little bit, but I won't stop creating. I can't!

Brian Pinkerton

#4. Pegging your contentment to the overall state of the world rather than of your own life: the basis of morality, or a sort of madness?

Alain De Botton

#5. Regardless of who originally made it popular, any hit song becomes a challenge to the ingenuity and imagination of other musicians and performers.

Les Baxter

#6. In 1984, I turned to theater in the hopes of finding a more direct form of communication between me and my people.

Cherrie Moraga

#7. On some nights I take a little laudanum and a few months ago Mrs Abernetty recommended pillows stuffed with camel hair. She was absolutely right.

Anthony Horowitz

#8. Merry Christmas!' someone shouted.
He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
'Merry Christmas!'
'Merry Christmas!'
'C-cookies for ever'body!' Sammy hollered. And looking both ways, they all fled across to the light, and the warmth, and the books, and the mystery.

Jan Karon

#9. I'm never going to give in. I'm never going to give up, and I will fight back with every breath I have.
- Dionne Warner, seven-time cancer survivor and subject of Never Leave Your Wingman

Deana J. Driver

#10. Ah! Those strange people who have the courage to be unhappy! Are they unhappy, by the way?

Alice James

#11. 99% of failures come from people who make excuses.

George Washington