I see the poem or the novel ending with an open door.

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.

1 billion people in the world are chronically hungry. 1 billion people are overweight.

...I can’t stop squirming. If fidgets were Wikipedia edits, I would have completely revamped the entry on guilt by now, and translated it into five new languages.

Some people see the cup as half empty. Some people see the cup as half full. I see the cup as too large.

Avoid witticisms at the expense of Others.

I have to say I do read partly for escapism. Why can't I escape and learn something?

Yes. But sad's alright. Sad's just apart of everything

For the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world.

The best remedy against an ill man is much ground betweene both. [The best remedy against an ill man is much ground between both.]

Most people use excuses to cover up mistakes, but it takes less time to do something right the first time.