“Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr.Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger.”

“A good writer can watch a cat pad across the street and know what it is to be pounced upon by a Bengal tiger.”

“Imagine, if you can, a huge grizzly with ten legs armed with mighty talons and an enormous froglike mouth splitting his head from ear to ear, exposing three rows of long, white tusks. Then endow this creature of your imagination with the agility and ferocity of a half-starved Bengal tiger and the strength of a span of bulls, and you will have some faint conception of Woola in action.”

“There is nothing to be frightened of," said the Rajah. "Very few tigers are man-eaters.""But I am," said the tiger."You might be lying," said the Rajah."I might be," said the tiger. "But I'm not.”

“I suddenly had an idea of how adults can hold on to a feeling for very long periods of time, long after the event is finished, long after cards have been sent and apologies made and everyone else had moved on. Adults were pack rats of old, useless emotions”

“If we are all going to have tragedies, if none of us can escape them, then surely we have to learn from them, we have to gain something. And we have to use what we have gained. Those of us who have fought tooth and nail to overcome tragedy are, after all, nothing else, proof that such things can be survived. So we can actually help others survive their tragedies too. As long as they’ll let us.”