He was so excessively polite that Wallendar suspected he had endured many humiliations in his life.

I know paradise has many gates, just as hell does. One has to learn to distinguish between them, or one is lost.

Poverty always looks the same, no matter where you come across it. The rich can always express their opulence by varying their lives. Different houses, clothes, cars. Or thoughts, dreams. But for the poor there is nothing but compulsory grayness, the only form of expression available to poverty.

What annoys a person who suicides? The life itself. Boredom. Tiredness that descends on every morning when you look at yourself at the mirror.

Africa was the most exotic place I could conceive of - the end of the world - and I knew I would go there one day.

When I was a very young author, I knew I needed to build myself a tower outside of Europe. Like when you're a hunter, and build towers to watch the animals move. I knew I would never understand the world without that perspective. I came to Africa for that rational reason, although I love Mozambique now.

You can have more than one home. You can carry your roots with you, and decide where they grow.