“The Chinese say it's better to be deprived of food for three days than tea for one.”

“But better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.”

“Better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.”

“It's wrong to hurt even bad people. Because they don't know any better, and because bad people sometimes become good.”

“I noticed Wahid's boys, all three thin with dirt-caked faces and short-cropped brown hair under their skull caps, stealing furative glances at my digital wristwatch....I unsnapped the wristwatch and gave it to the youngest of the three boys. He muttered a sheepish "Tashakor.""It tells you the time in any city in the world," I told him. The boys, nodding politely passing the watch between them, taking turns trying it on. But they lost interest and, soon the watch sat abandoned on the straw mat....I understood now why the boys hadn't shown any interest in the watch. They hadn't been staring at the watch at all. They'd been staring at my food.”

“It's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out.”

“You don't order someone to polish your shoes one day and call them 'sister' the next.”