"A Fine Balance" Quotes

Every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.

But nobody ever forgot anything, not really, though sometimes they pretended, when it suited them. Memories were permanent. Sorrowful ones remained sad even with the passing of time, yet happy ones could never be recreated - not with the same joy.

One did not demand affection from children. One simply made oneself lovable.

Mirrors had to be as tall as the edges of the universe, and they had to have memory; otherwise, they were not proper mirrors.

But nobody paid any attention; they were used to it by now, this deafening silence from the rest of the world.

There is no such thing as an innocent bystander. It is either innocence or complicity.

She wore her death as someone else might wear an old garment. It looked no more, no less: it helped to keep out the chill.

Maybe he has put the knife away, but he'll never forget where he got it.

The only thing that makes life endurable is the dulling effect of habit.

Reality had taken on for her a sense of the insulting.