“Everything that ever happened to me that was important happened in the desert.”

“What is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places where there is no power.”

“In spite of this, our table's status on the Oronsay continued to be minimal, while those at the Captain's Table were constantly toasting to one another's significance. That was a small lesson I learned on the journey. What is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places where there is no power. Nothing much of lasting value ever happens at the head table, held together by familiar rhetoric. Those who already have power continue to glide along in the familiar rut they have made for themselves.”

“How does this happen? To fall in love and be disassembled.”

“Men had always been the reciters of poetry in the desert.”

“... the desert, where there is the communal book of moonlight. We were among the rumour of wells. In the palace of winds.”

“I went mad before he did, you killed everything in me. Kiss me,will you. Stop defending yourself.”