“I wasn’t meant for reality, but life came and found me.”

“I dreamt my lady came and found me dead
…………
And breathed such life with kisses in my lips
That I revived and was an emperor.”

“A sense of calm came over me. More and more often I found myself thinking, "This is where I belong. This is what I came into this world to do.”

“one's twentieth birthday. That day opened the door to a wider life: I reached out to grasp reality. But in fact it was reality which gripped me with its restrictions and constraints and rules which arrogantly claim to be the laws of life, of the universe. To be grown-up really meant resignation; one gave in (if ruefully), laughing a little at one's young dreams.”

“All my life, since I came to the Institute, you were the mirror of my soul. I saw the good in me in you. In your eyes alone I found grace. When you are gone from me, who will see me like that?”

“The thought came and went, more wish than thought. Maria wasn’t good at considering her own emotions. Most of the time the girl found it hard to believe that what she felt might matter.”

“My whole life was about her, what if her whole life wasn’t all about me?”

“When I came to Mogadishu…[t]here was one road built by the Italians. If you try to force me to stand down, I will leave the city as I found it. I came to power with a gun; only the gun can make me go.”

“I was dead until you found me, though I breathed. I was sightless, though I could see. And then you came… and I was awakened.”

“But I wasn’t quite sure how to spell ‘ Cartaud, and I found listings for Cartau, Cartaud, Cartault, Cartaux, Carteau, Carteaud, Carteaux”