“God, the woman must have been a pain. When she was alive.”

“He must have been delightful," she said, "when he was alive!”

“She searched her mind for a single day when it had felt good to be alive. There must have been one, surely?”

“When God designed the Marquesas... he must have been high.”

“You have to remember, Kanai, she said at length, that as a young man Nirmal was in love with the idea of revolution. Men like that, even when they turn their backs on their party and their comrades, can never let go of the idea: it's the secret god that rules their hearts. It is what makes them come alive; they revel in the danger, the exquisite pain. It is to them what childbirth is to a woman, or war to mercenary.”

“Every woman is a gift when she becomes a daughter, Every woman is beautiful when she becomes a lover, Every woman is special when she becomes a wife, Every woman is a god when she becomes a Mother”