... the desert, where there is the communal book of moonlight. We were among the rumour of wells. In the palace of winds.

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

That's Anil's path. She grows up in Sri Lanka, goes and gets educated abroad, and through fate or chance gets brought back by the Human Rights Commission to investigate war crimes.

Everyone has to scratch on walls somewhere or they go crazy

The first sentence of every novel should be: Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human.

We are expanded by tears, we are told, not reduced by them.

We all have an old knot in the heart we wish to untie.

The joyful will stoop with sorrow, and when you have gone to the earth I will let my hair grow long for your sake, I will wander through the wilderness in the skin of a lion

There is the hidden presence of others in us, even those we have known briefly. We contain them for the rest of our lives, at every border that we cross.

For the first forty days a child is given dreams of previous lives. Journeys, winding paths, a hundred small lessons and then the past is erased.

A man in a desert can hold absence in his cupped hands, knowing it is something that feeds him more than water.

Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something and has lost something.

To experience peace ~ stop disturbing it!

If God gives you something you can do, why in God's name wouldn't you do it?

A thug only understands you when you speak his language

Really, I'm pretty laid-back, always cracking jokes.

So I just always drew. But never took that as a career path. I ended up in the computer business, and found myself as the vice president of sales and marketing for a computer accessories company.

I came into this world anxious to uncover the meaning of things, my soul desirous to be at origin of the world, and here I am an object among other objects.

Self-contemplation is apt to end in self-conceit.

I would advise all youths aspiring to athletic fame or a professional career to practice clean living, fair play and good sportsmanship.

My mother's love was really not based on attachment. Her love was genuine love. To make me happy, not how I will make her happy.