The Englishman left months ago, Hana, he's with the Bedouin or in some English garden with its phlox and shit.

Do you understand the sadness of geography?

Every night I cut out my heart. But in the morning it was full again

Nowadays he doesn't think of his wife, though he knows he can turn around and evoke every move of her, describe any aspect of her, the weigh of her wrist on his heart during the night.

Men had always been the reciters of poetry in the desert.

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.

He knows that the only way he can accept losing her is if he can continue to hold her or be held by her. If they can somehow nurse each other out of this. Not with a wall.

How can you smile as though your whole life hasn't capsized

I am not in love with him, I am in love with ghosts. So is he, he's in love with ghosts.

She had always wanted words, she loved them, grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape. Whereas I thought words bent emotions like sticks in water.

I once traveled with a guide who was taking me to Faya. He didn't speak for nine hours. At the end of it he pointed to the horizon and said, 'Faya!' That was a good day.

History can be rewritten, but at what cost?

The Bible is God's vision bank where you can withdraw raw materials to design your destiny.

May God give comfort to the suffering souls.

Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love prayer and forgiveness.

Good manners are just a way of showing other people that we have respect for them.

Satan stations more devils on monastery walls than in the dens of iniquity, for the latter offer no resistance.

Being appointed Elder Professor meant very much taking over the shop, in that the professor in those days controlled all the moneys.

I'm always working. I work wherever I am.

Shihonage is the foundation of Aikido. All you ever need to master is shihonage.

A disturbing novel about dreams and wishes, a nightmarish distaff monkey's paw of a book that it's impossible to forget. Lisa Tuttle remains our preeminent chronicler of family madness and desire.