I wondered why she craved this knowledge and found myself remembering that she was, after all, an anthropologist.

These atheist cultures were certainly diligent in preserving the relics of their saints.

...History it seemed could be something entirely different a splash of blood whose agony didn't fade overnight or over centuries.

It was strange, I reflected.. that even in the weirdest circumstances, the most troubling episodes of one's life, the greatest divides from home and familiarity, there were these moments of undeniable joy.

The very worst impulses of humankind can survive generations, centuries, even millennia. And the best of our individual efforts can die with us at the end of a single lifetime.

We Gypsies know that where Jews are killed, Gypsies are always murthered too. And then a lot of other people, usually.

I believe in walking out of a museum before the paintings you've seen begin to run together. How else can you carry anything away with you in your mind's eye?