When we are young we do not look into mirrors. It is when we are old, concerned with our name, our legend, what our lives will mean to the future. We become vain with the names we own, our claims to have been the first eyes, the strongest army, the cleverest merchant. It is when he is old that Narcissus wants a graven image of himself.

She had always wanted words, she loved them; grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape.

I'm a Canadian citizen. But I always want to feel at home in Sri Lanka. I'm a member of both countries.

Sadness is very close to hate.

For echo is the soul of the voice exciting itself in hollow places.

This was the time in her life that she fell upon books as the only door out of her cell. They became half her world.

Women want everything of a lover. And too often I would sink below the surface. So armies disappear under sand. And there was her fear of her husband, her belief in her honour, my old desire for self-sufficiency, my disappearances, her suspicions of me, my disbelief that she loved me. The paranoia and claustrophobia of hidden love.