Salma Khadra al-Jayusi has been instrumental in her role as a transmitter of Arabic literature. - Naomi Shihab Nye

"I would like to go to school with the donkeys in the field. To stand all day in the free air with an open mouth. No bells ringing." (p75)

Right then he knew that moment was clearly written in his brain forever. (p170)

during the Gulf War, I remember two little third grade girls saying to me - after I read them some poems by writers in Iraq - 'You know, we never thought about there being children in Iraq before.' And I thought, 'Well those poems did their job, because now they'll think about everything a little bit differently.' They'll feel closer to that place in a different way. (2002)