“Love made her patient. It made her hopeful.”

“The hope that she might regain her happiness made her fearless.”

“When you were the son of evil, there was little you couldn't do, own, or kill, and yet her mortal self was an elusive trophy he could touch, but not put on his shelf.

This made her rare. This made her precious.

This made him… love her.”

“Loving her, Monsignore,
I love all her attributes;
But I believe
That even if I did not love her
I would love the blueness of her eyes,
And her blue garment, made in the manner of the Japanese.”

“He was wrong, as all are who rouse the passive resistance of a woman's nature. The indignity and violence with which she was treated only made her turn more fondly to the shelter of the loving heart she believed was so truly her own. Kindness might have brought her to her father's feet, ready to give up her dearest hopes for his sake; but his harsh anger only made her tremble at the hopeless future.”

“Sometimes it made her want to put her fist through glass; other times, it made her cry a river.”

“Her soul in the balance, my heart in her hands
I made her a widow, she made me a man.”

“Life had taught her to be brave, to be patient, to love, to forgive.”

“It made her pure, and those we love must be pure, otherwise we can't love them. But loving a person is also making her pure. (p. 189)”

“Ammu loved her children (of course), but their wide-eyed vulnerability and their willingness to love people who didn't really love them exasperated her and sometimes made her want to hurt them-- just as an education, a precaution.”