{"author":"Ruth Ahmed","author_id":"Ruth+Ahmed","total_quotes":30,"quotes":[{"text":"My heart was in my mouth. I realised that I had no desire to know any more about her past. What was behind her made me feel sick, petrified. Only the future mattered now.","author":"Ruth Ahmed","tags":["acceptance","future","interracial-love","interracial-relationship","love","past","quotes","relationships","ruth-ahmed","when-ali-met-honour"],"id":1034,"author_id":"Ruth+Ahmed"},{"text":"Honour and I would have to create our world, live by our own rules. My family wasn't ready for her just yet. I didn't know if they ever would be.","author":"Ruth Ahmed","tags":["family","family-dynamics","first-love","interracial-couple","interracial-relationship","love","young-love"],"id":26803,"author_id":"Ruth+Ahmed"},{"text":"Do you ever look up at the stars and try to contemplate the ends of the universe?","author":"Ruth Ahmed","tags":["astrophysics","ruth-ahmed","science","space","stars","universe","when-ali-met-honour"],"id":28833,"author_id":"Ruth+Ahmed"},{"text":"The fires of hell were seventy times hotter than the fires of the iron.","author":"Ruth Ahmed","tags":["heaven","hell","punishment","religion","ruth-ahmed","spiritual","when-ali-met-honour"],"id":80623,"author_id":"Ruth+Ahmed"},{"text":"Do you have a girlfriend?''No,' I said quickly.Deny Honour again. Peter only denied Jesus three times. I must have denied Honour like three thousand times.","author":"Ruth Ahmed","tags":["first-love","god","jesus","life","love","peter","ruth-ahmed","secret-love","secrets","when-ali-met-honour","young-love"],"id":101710,"author_id":"Ruth+Ahmed"},{"text":"It was things like that I remembered about Ruby, the incongruity, the struggle to find herself.No matter what she wore though she was always Ruby, always herself.","author":"Ruth Ahmed","tags":["identity","islamic-faith","islamic-identity","ruth-ahmed","when-ali-met-honour"],"id":123421,"author_id":"Ruth+Ahmed"},{"text":"The sadness began later, in waves as crushing as the contractions had been,.","author":"Ruth Ahmed","tags":["birth","contractions","first-birth","pregnancy","sadness-feeling-ache"],"id":132610,"author_id":"Ruth+Ahmed"},{"text":"9/11 forced us to build another identity, to look deep and say who are we and what do we believe and is killing in the name of Islam part of that religion?No. No. No.","author":"Ruth Ahmed","tags":["9-11","cultural-identity","identity","islam","islamic-faith","islamic","religion","terrorism","when-ali-met-honour"],"id":137203,"author_id":"Ruth+Ahmed"},{"text":"I steadied by guitar against the table, and steadied myself with it.And forgot every rule I had ever known.","author":"Ruth Ahmed","tags":["life-changing","reflection","ruth-ahmed","when-ali-met-honour"],"id":139908,"author_id":"Ruth+Ahmed"},{"text":"The alternatives in my life went through my mind. Unemployed, alone, despairing, watching daytime TV. That couldn't end well.Or helping people, like genuinely making a difference. Imagine waking up and doing that every day?","author":"Ruth Ahmed","tags":["change","charity","charity","daytime-tv","finding-purpose","life-choices","making-a-difference","ruth-ahmed","when-ali-met-honour"],"id":155444,"author_id":"Ruth+Ahmed"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":30,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}