“Weapons are kept from women, but such a naming suggests that perhaps men fear our talents in war as well as our desire for peace.”

“My mother, Abra, had taught me that all people are made from the same dust. When our days here are gone, all men and women enter the same garden. ”

“what was a rose but the living proof of desire, the single best evidence of human longing and earthly devotion. but desire could be twisted,after all, and Jealousy was the name of the rose that did well in arid souls.”

“I must keep my head and not give in to desire, for desire is what causes women to drown.”

“Any weapon touched by a woman, even by accident, must be cleansed with both water and prayer so that her essence would not linger, diverting the warrior who might use it next, for even the faintest touch could bring lust to that man's heart. Perhaps that meant a woman who was well trained in arms would be the superior warrior, her attention never wavering from her task.”

“Our rest is formed by our waking life and our waking life is formed by our sorrows.”

“Women know things that men will never know. We keep the best secrets. We tell the best stories.”