all this Beethoven and rain

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.

True Mentors, don't make their mentees a clone of themselves

I didn't get trained by the school system like other kids, and when I did concentrate on learning, my mind was cluttered and locked by the programming of the system.

A man thinks he owns things, and it is he who is owned

There are some mechanisms that are so—so broken that they cannot be repaired.

There's always something ridiculous happening on the set, especially when people get tired because of the long days.

Nothing reinforces a professional relationship more than enjoying success with someone.

In the three years since our nation began operations in Iraq, more than 2,500 Americans have been killed and more than 18,000 Americans have been seriously wounded

My memoir is about my time in film and the decision to leave Hollywood, grow up, and stop pretending.

I'm so vigorous, and I so take it for granted, because I've always been a real physical person.

When politicians rush to fix things, it's a sure sign that either the intended patient is dead or fully healed.