Just saying...

My elder brother used to write a quote on the inside cover of all his books. When I was younger, I liked to open his book and read through it, full of joy and expectation. From this came my love for quotes and proverbs.

I still remember a book in which he wrote the text, 'The world is a stage and men and women are merely players.' I would read it, close his book, put it back in his drawer and walk away feeling as if I had stolen a piece of chocolate from the fridge. On another of his books, he wrote, 'La bave du crapaud ne salit pas la blancheur du lys.' [The toad's drool does not smear the whiteness of the lily.] That was so awesome and it remained one of my favourite quotes for very many years.

Learning these quotes felt like learning to use the Nunchaku, I felt like they made me better able to defend myself and express my thoughts. But mostly I have always found that a proverb is like a lighthouse, they make you see the light through darkness.

Even though my father stopped school when he was only 7-8 years old and never learned much English or French, he also had so many of these quotes he would use whenever he wanted to teach us something. To teach us to be patient and not compare ourselves with others, he would say 'Ena enn kozé ki dirr, Sak fleur flérit kan arrive so letemps.' [There is a saying that goes like this, Every flower blooms in its own time.] To encourage us to stay away from bad influences, he would tell us, "Kan ou trouve dilo malpropre, ou avoy enn roche ladan pou li saute avek ou?'[When you see dirty water, do you have throw a stone in it so it spills on you? ]

One day, my cousin who was doing his HSC was finding it hard to find a teacher to take tuition in General Paper. He came to see my father who knew a popular and well respected teacher. My father brought my cousin along and went to see the teacher at his home. The latter came out of his tuition class to greet my father who introduced my cousin to him. The guy refused to take my cousin in his batch, saying, 'Ou ti bizin vinn gett moi koumansement l'année. Mo class inn fini rempli, trop tard asterr.'[You should have come earlier, now it's too late.] My father smiled and said, "Ou koné, ena enn kozé ki dirr, 'Il n'est jamais trop tard pour bien faire.'" [There is saying that goe slike this, It's never too late to do a good action.]

Even though the teacher probably knew a thousand quotes, I think he could not think of a come back at that moment and said, 'Ok, dirr li vini lundi, mo pou ferr enn place pou li.' [Ok, tell him to come on Monday, I will have a seat for him. ]

There is also the time when I went for an interview for scholarship after completing my studies. I had done really well in all the subjects except for one paper in Economics where all the students from our class surprisingly got poor results. I was expecting the board to ask me about it and indeed they did, 'How come you were so brilliant in your other papers and in this one you did so poorly?'

In the spur of the moment I said, 'I think it's because there is a foolish corner even in the brain of the wisest man.' None of the members on the board was expecting this and they couldn't help smiling. Long story short, I got the scholarship and I like to think it was one time when a quote served me really well.

When I was studying, one day we were discussing how some people like to take themselves so seriously and my friend said, 'Les cimetières sont remplis de gens qu'on disait indispensables.' [The cemeteries are full of people who were thought indispensable.] In one sentence he had captured exactly what was on my mind and I immediately thought, 'Oh wow! I need to use this quote some time, it's too good.' And of course, my respect for this guy shot sky high.

Years later, I joined the field of communication and progressively became more confident expressing myself and coming up with my own original thoughts. My colleagues and friends would often turn to me whenever they needed a quote for someone's birthday or for some special occasion. One day, I thought of a line and asked my colleague, 'What do you think of this? Mon coeur est un cerf-volant qu'un arbre a fait prisonnier?' [My heart is a kite entangled in a tree.] He asked me to repeat it, I did so thinking he was impressed, but then I saw him feverishly typing on his phone. When I asked him about it, he said, 'Mo pe avoy sa mo 35 moi. Fodrer pa less perdi sa bann dialog la.' [I am sending it to a girl, we must not let these sayings go to waste.]

One day my elder brother was writing the final project for his course and when it was nearly over, he told me, 'Mo croire bizin ecrire enn zoli pensée koumansement. Ki kapav écrire?' [I think we must put a nice quote on the inside cover. What can we put? ]

At that moment I felt like life had come full circle. From the days I used to hide and read his quotes, now I had the chance to share one with him. So I told him the story of the book Madame Bovary. I told him, 'You know when Gustave Flaubert wrote the first draft of the novel that was to make him famous all over the world, he gave it to the editors but was told him they were not really impressed. Gustave Flaubert then said, 'It's only a draft, I need to fix the pieces together.' And he added, 'It is not the pearls that make the necklace but the thread that joins them together.'

So I told my brother to print this quote itself on the inside cover of his project, 'It is not the pearls that make the necklace but the thread that joins them together.'

One day at Charles Telfair, one of the marketing students was stressed and she told me that she had no idea how to design her stand for the end-of-year showcase. There was only one day left and everybody had done very colourful stuffs and she was afraid she would look like the ugly duckling. I told her, "You know most of the others, they will be judged by their design, but you are a marketing person, people will want to see your confidence, your vision and your determination. Why don't you go for a clean stand with only one quote in cut out on your wall? I think your stall will stand out from the others in this way."

She was both relieved and impressed with the idea. She thought about it and asked me, "What can I put as quote?"

I said, "Why don't you say: 'The whole world steps aside for the one who knows where she is going.'"