“A cage went in search of a bird.”

“What is this thing called the existence? Is it all the things that we perceive it to be? Or is it something else? It's a gift. One of my favorite examples is the bird in the cage. You may think that you own the bird inside the cage, but you're wrong. You only own the cage. People think that they need to have a very fancy cage, that the more incredible the cage, the more incredible the bird will look. But the cage and the bird are really two different things. When the bird is gone, all that will be left is the cage.”

“The caged bird sings with a fearful trill,
of things unknown, but longed for still,
and his tune is heard on the distant hill,
for the caged bird sings of freedom.”

“A forest bird never wants a cage.”

“God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages.”

“Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness.”

“Islam was like a mental cage. At first, when you open the door, the caged bird stays inside: it is frightened. It has internalized its imprisonment. It takes time for the bird to escape, even after someone has opened the doors to its cage.”

“A person isn't a bird. You can't cage a person.”

“The compelled mother loves her child as the caged bird sings. The song does not justify the cage nor the love the enforcement.”

“Caged birds accept each other, but flight is what they long for.”