Never look at other people's bad fortune,' my mother said. 'If you do, it will come back to find you instead of its rightful owner.

You don't fight for peace sister,' Nahara told me, 'You embrace it.

Feel lucky for what you have when you have it. Isn't that the point? Happily ever after doesn't mean happy forever.

We stood and watched as God abandoned us, and then we did the best we could.

After a while, the characters I'm writing begin to feel real to me. That's when I know I'm heading in the right direction

It was as though I had one map inside my head and it led to the man who was waiting for me. Someone who was alone - maybe even more alone - than I was.

Everything was red, the air, the sun, whatever I looked at. Except for him. I fell in love with someone who was human. I watched him walk through the hills and come back in the evening when his work was through. I saw things no woman would see: that he knew how to cry, that he was alone. I cast myself at him, like a fool, but he didn't see me. And then one day he noticed I was beautiful and he wanted me. He broke me off and took me with him, in his hands, and I didn't care that I was dying until I actually was.