In a determined reversal of her inherent nature, Kochu Maria now, as a policy, hardly ever believed anything that anybody said.

That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.

If you're happy in a dream, does that count?

This was the trouble with families. Like invidious doctors, they knew just where it hurt.

Flat muscled and honey coloured. Sea secrets in his eyes. A silver raindrop in his ear.

When she listened to songs that she loved on the radio, something stirred inside her. A liquid ache spread under her skin, and she walked out of the world like a witch.

His gratitude widened his smile and bent his back.

He could do only one thing at a time. If he held her, he couldn't kiss her. If he kissed her, he couldn't see her. If he saw her, he couldn't feel her.

Heaven opened and the water hammered down, reviving the reluctant old well, greenmossing the pigless pigsty, carpet bombing still, tea-colored puddles the way memory bombs still, tea-colored minds.

Her collarbones like wings that spread from the base of her throat to the ends of her shoulders. A bird held down by skin.

To understand history, ' Chacko said, 'we have to go inside and listen to what they're saying. And look at the books and the pictures on the wall. And smell the smells.

I've always really been a romantic at heart, and I have always wanted kids, and I think the idea of sharing your life with the right person is amazing, actually.

The mere physical man is like the ant crawling on the paper, who observes black lettering and attributes its production to the pen and nothing more.

I am confident I will set foot again in Tibet in my lifetime.

You have to leave all your options open. And if you don't leave your options open, you're a fool.

The best part of one's life is the working part, the creative part. Believe me, I love to succeed... However, the real spiritual and emotional excitement is in the doing.

You know, you have to put bread on the table. So you thank God you got the job.

You don't really prepare for a kissing scene.

It doesn't mean anything when we go back to Sydney and its round one and we're starting from scratch in the NRL. That's the one we really want.

It's all the same to the clam.

Well, Ramadi is a provincial capital of Anbar province. It's a sprawling city west of Baghdad. It's a poor city, endless cinderblock houses and high-rises almost as far as the eye can see.