“All of them would understand, as he did now, that he had crossed a line in himself, he had left their world behind, the decent world of tea parties and suburban witticisms.”

“He feared at certain moments that the only new knowledge he would take away from this country was learning how to swim and use the telephone.”

“That echo. It played in his head at unexpected moments, repeating certain sounds and making nonsense of them. But could you remember an echo? Memory itself was like another kind of echo, everything...”

“What he sensed more than anything else was kindness a kindness of a human and immediate sort. It was surprising how very radical this simple emotion could be.”

“I am happy to see you, Maso”

“No emotion was supposed to cross the great divide of class. Affection could erase all hierarchy; in this was the danger, and the delight.”

“The British do not expect happiness. I had the impression, all the time that I lived there, that they do not want to be happy; they want to be right.”

“Would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?”

“But, of course, you might be asking yourself, 'Am I a feminist? I might not be. I don't know! I still don't know what it is! I'm too knackered and confused to work it out. That curtain pole really ...”

“The pain of the flesh is naught to that of the heart”

“Its something of a clich, at least among war correspondents, that war makes people unusually horny; what it actually does is make you want to touch as much flesh as you can get your hands on.”

“People who live in society have learnt how to see themselves, in mirrors, as they appear to their friends. I have no friends: is that why my flesh is so naked?”

“The Indians insistence on clinging to their customs had to be the work of Satan there was no other explanation which is why the friars went out to hunt down and lasso the deserters and then whipped...”

“These men flocked to the plains, and were rather stimulated than retarded by the danger of an Indian war. This was another potent agency in producing the result we enjoy to-day, in having in so sho...”

“So I have an Indian heart if I do something illegal?'"No, you have an Indian heart if you understand the limitations of our resources and are willing to step out of the man-made boundaries of the l...”