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24 quotes by Ishmael Beah

Ishmael Beah (born on 23 November 1980 ) is a Sierra Leonean author and human rights activist who rose to fame with his acclaimed memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. His first novel, Radiance of Tomorrow, was published in January 2014.
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I had a very simple, unremarkable and happy life. And I grew up in a very small town. And so my life was made up of, you know, in the morning going... →

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I believe in having a more open mind and including others who don't share your faith and having dialogue with them. And just having a pure heart... →

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Shakespeare is absolutely big in Africa. I guess he's big everywhere. Growing up, Shakespeare was the thing. You'd learn monologues and... →

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I was one of those children forced into fighting at the age of 13, in my country Sierra Leone, a war that claimed the lives of my mother, father and... →

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What happens in the context of war is that, in order for you to make a child into a killer, you destroy everything that they know, which is what... →

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For many observers, a child who has known nothing but war, a child for whom the Kalashnikov is the only way to make a living and for whom the bush is... →

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We all find joy and radiance and a reason to move on even in the most dire of circumstances. Even in chaos and madness, there's still a beauty... →

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My mother tongue, Mende, is very expressive, very figurative, and when I write, I always struggle to find the English equivalent of things that I... →

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I had gone to a talent show - I was interested in American hip-hop music - with my older brother, to another town, and my town was attacked. I went... →

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I believe that there is a God, and coming from an African tradition, I believe also that there are gods.

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After I wrote my memoir, 'A Long Way Gone,' I was a bit exhausted. I didn't want to write another memoir; I felt that it might not be... →

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A lot of people, when they say 'forgive and forget,' they think you completely wash your brain out and forget everything. That is not the... →

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I grew up in Sierra Leone, in a small village where as a boy my imagination was sparked by the oral tradition of storytelling. At a very young age I... →

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