(Abraham Verghese)

• We come unbidden into this life, and if we are lucky we find a purpose beyond starvation, misery and early death which, lest we forget, is the common lot. (pg. 6)
• Life, too, is like that. You live it forward, but understand it backward. (pg. 9)
• She considered Aden an evil city, where God used Satan to show her how fragile and fragmented the world was, how delicate the balance between evil and good, and how naïve she was in her faith. Her father used to say, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." (pg. 31)
• As she bent over the child she realized that the tragedy of death had to do entirely with what was left unfulfilled. She was ashamed that such a simple insight should have eluded her all these years. Make something beautiful of your life. (pg. 64)
• How beautiful and horrible life is, Hema thought; too horrible to simply call tragic. Life is worse than tragic. (pg. 129)
• "If I wanted to make love to a rubber glove I would never have to leave the hospital." (pg. 142)
• Ghosh recognized the song, a very popular one. It was called "Tizita"; there was no single equivalent English word. Tizita meant "memory tinged with regret." Was there any other kind, Ghosh wondered. (pg. 152)
• He had a theory that bedroom Amharic and bedside Amharic were really the same thing: Please lie down. Take off your shirt. Open your mouth. Take a deep breath... The language of love was the same as the language of medicine. (pg. 153)
• "I will always find you," I whispered.
  • "Maybe," she said, bringing her lips close to my ear. "But I might get better at hiding." (pg. 266)
• The key to your happiness is to own your slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don't. If you keep saying your slippers aren't yours, then you'll die searching, you'll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. (pg. 351)
• He sighed. "I'll never leave you again."
  • I felt a twinge in my chest at those words, a desire to make him take them back. He'd spoken as if it were all in his hands to decide. (pg. 354)
• Who was this beauty? Not my little sister. Not even my best friend. Sometimes my opponent. But always the love of my life. (pg. 359)
• Rain was familiar. But this balancing on the edge of feelings so powerful they seemed capable of making me fly, this was a revelation. (pg. 378-379)
• There wasn't any point in dwelling in the pain of the past, not when the future could hold such pleasure. (pg. 380)
• "Never mind. But do me a favor; tell her who you are if you go back. And stay around and hold her and whisper sweet things in her ear when you are done. Tell her she's beautiful."
  • "Whisper what? Why?"
  • "Forget it."
  • "Marion, all women are beautiful," Shiva said. I looked up and realized that he spoke with conviction and not a trace of sarcasm. (pg. 393)
• I could have killed Shiva that night. I thought about it. I decided it would solve nothing. My world was already destroyed. My arms were dead. My brain was numb. My love had been turned into a mockery of love, into shit. I had no reason, no desire, to do anything anymore. (pg. 407)
• I'd come so close to losing her, and it helped me understand that despite everything, I didn't want her to die. I might never forgive her. But I still loved her. (pg. 413)
• Life is full of signs. The trick is to know how to read them. (pg. 419)
• "My beautiful wife is sleeping like an angel. My sons make me so proud... Tonight I'm going to take my wife dancing and I'll ask her to extend our marriage contract for another year. The only thing wrong is that a sinner like me doesn't deserve such blessings." (pg. 420)
• The mind was fragile, fickle, but the human body was resilient. (pg. 514)
• She had supposedly died of adrenal failure caused by tuberculosis. I knew better. She had died chasing greatness and never saw it each time it was in her hand, so she kept seeking it elsewhere, but never understood the work required to get it or keep it. I'm ashamed to say I felt relief when the word came; only her death could ensure that we didn't keep tearing each other apart for what remained of our lives. (pg. 644)
• The world turns on our every action, and our every omission, whether we know it or not. (pg. 657)