“They were two ruined souls doomed to wander their minds, if not the earth, trying to remember from whence they came.”

“Sometimes sentiments were better left in song.”

“As she continues to answer questions about her employment, all these words mean little more to her now than I AM SOPHISTICATED, I AM WORTHY, I AM SOPHISTICATED, I AM WORTHY. She attempts the posture of a politician's wife, shoulders held back, dignifIed yet modest.”

“These stories are important to me, not because they happen to be about South Asians, but because they’re circling around a certain strain of loneliness that goes deeper than cultural dissonance, that has to do with the yearning to connect with someone else, or with some unreachable vision of home.”

“Do you think that sometimes, there are those that are meant to be together?" he asked, not breaking his gaze.I thought for a moment. "I don't know, maybe." I shrugged."What if, there are two parts that were once a whole. Not here on earth, but," he looked skyward, then at me again with those searing golden eyes. A slight, nervous smile crept up my right cheek. He continued, "And those two parts weren't what made them whole, but the parts of them did.""You've lost me now," I said, as I loosened my grip on his embrace, shaking my head."I'm talking about soul mates. Split aparts. It's a theory of Plato's. Except, what if the split aparts were never one, but each split apart was a part of one that was once whole?”

“Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.”

“I tried to smile, but gravity kept tugging at the corners of my mouth.”