Randa Abdel-Fattah

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

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.

I want to be with one person in my life. I want to know that the guy I spend the rest of my life with is the first person I share something so intimate and exciting with.

Life isn__ like the movies. People don__ change overnight. people don__ go from arrogant and self-righteous to ashamed and remorseful. They don__ suddenly give in when they__e spent years taking out. No doesn__ magically become a Yes.

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

Your perception is riveting, Amal," he says in a bored and sarcastic tone, dropping the note down on my desk. "It's comforting to know that there are people in my class who have the maturity and intelligence to make derogatory comments about other people's external appearances."Now what am I supposed to say to that?"What do you have to say for yourself?"Friggin' mind reader.

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.

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

Most Muslim women know it is fear and curiosity that cause people to stare. They know it is ignorance and stereotypes that cause people to suppose that a piece of material covering the hair strips a woman of the ability to speak English, pursue a career, work a remote control.

In a multicultural, diverse society there are countless ways in which people negotiate the everyday lived experience and reality of diversity.

What__ the good of being true to your religion on the outside, if you don__ change what__ on the inside,were it really counts ?

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.

To the Muslim woman, the hijab provides a sense of empowerment. It is a personal decision to dress modestly according to the command of a genderless Creator; to assert pride in self, and embrace one's faith openly, with independence and courageous conviction.

The hijab, or sikh turban, or Jewish skullcap are all explicit symbols, but they do not represent a threat or affront to others, and have no bearing on the competence, skills and intelligence of a person.

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.

I'm starting to realize that being born into this social world is a little like being born into clean air. You take it in as soon as you breathe, and pretty soon you don't even realize that while you can walk around with clear lungs, other people are wearing oxygen masks just to survive.

You? Nervous? Man, you've got more balls than any girl I've ever known!' 'You've known some weird girls, then," I say, raising an eyebrow at him.

Belief means nothing without actions