Randa Abdel-Fattah

“Religious celebrations, and the good will, high spirits and generosity that mark them, are wonderful occasions for understanding the potential of 'everyday multiculturalism', and how people from diverse faiths can connect and show they care, rather than go down parallel, sometimes hostile, roads.”

“It's like one of those scenes from a feel-good Hollywood movie. Where everybody is happy and nobody's hair fizzes in the wind. Where it doesn't rain, your shoes stay comfortable all day, and everybody's jokes are funny.”

“Spirituality is deeply personal. Yet, society has to face the fact that certain faiths celebrate spirituality through an overt expression of inner convictions.”

“When you exist in the centre of a debate, as a topic, a hypothesis - otherised and stigmatised - you become the prop in a proposition.”

“Life isn’t like the movies. People don’t change overnight. people don’t go from arrogant and self-righteous to ashamed and remorseful. They don’t suddenly give in when they’ve spent years taking out. No doesn’t magically become a Yes.”

“Sometimes it's easy to lose faith in people. And sometimes one act of kindness is all it takes to give you hope again.”

“Parents. Honestly. Sometimes they really do think the world revolves around them.”

“What’s the good of being true to your religion on the outside, if you don’t change what’s on the inside,were it really counts ?”

“You should take notes whenever you hear interesting or original language.”

“I do most of my reading on the train ride to and from work. But I always have a book in my handbag so that I can read at any time, anywhere.”

“For me, religious festivals and celebrations have become an important way to teach my children about how we can transform living with diversity from the superficial 'I eat ethnic food', to something dignified, mutually respectful and worthwhile.”

“It seems Palestinians can't win. The language of peace negotiations has always been predicated on a representation that Palestinians are violent and that is why Israel behaves as it does.”

“With my human rights advocacy, that's always been through my writing. I've always tried to write articles and contribute to journals and a lot of online journals - about human rights, especially Palestinian human rights. I find the time to do things to do things I'm passionate about, because I find enjoyment in them. I just have to juggle.”

“I just don't know what I'd do without a brain, Simone!" I say. "I mean, what's a person without one?”

“I wasn't rebellious. Other friends had far stricter parents and where there wasn't a relationship of respect and communication, they were usually the opposite; kids go to the other extreme.”

“My family are observant Muslims, but I've come to the faith through an intellectual conviction, and that's something that they've taught me. It's never been forced upon me. They've given me a very strong identity as an Australian Muslim.”

“We are, at almost every point of our day, immersed in cultural diversity: faces, clothes, smells, attitudes, values, traditions, behaviours, beliefs, rituals.”

“True friends are those who love you not in spite of your faults and imperfections, but because of them.”

“A woman's body is her body and what she wears or does not wear is her choice. Get over it and move on.”

“The easiest way for readers to connect with characters and feel sympathy is to make the character entertaining, sympathetic and likeable.”