“What use is a good book...if you cannot share your pleasure in it with another?”

“In 1891 the Brazilian Minister of Finance decreed the abolition of history; he ordered the destruction of every document which dealt in any way with slavery or the slave trade; a nation-wide burning of the books.”

“I am a human being; I am a woman; I am a black woman; I am an African. Once I was free; then I was captured and became a slave; but inside me, I have never been a slave; even today, inside me, here, and here, I am still a free woman.”

“From what Ayyan had heard of the battles of the Brahmins, it would be bloodless but brutal. They would fight like demons armed with nothing more than deceit and ideals - another form of deceit among men from good families.”

“A man cannot be exactly the way he wants to be and also dream of keeping his wife”

“What is it about life that even Ousep Chacko believes it is a lottery?”

“The city is full of terrible actors. That is what historians never say about Madras, it is filled with hams.”