“You can want one thing and have a secret wish for its opposite.”

“You, on the other hand, wish to know things. And no one can forgive a girl for that.”

“Still, slavery professes only to wish its rights. It only wants to be let alone. Of course, what else could it want? And what else is the secret of the present state of the country? Under the plea of being let alone — that it was a dreadful thing and only wanted to mind its own business — it has quietly possessed itself, one after another, of all the outworks of the Constitution, and now seeks to intrench itself finally in the citadel.”

“In opposition, there's not much one can do. One doesn't have the carrot and one doesn't have the stick. One can't promote and one can't fire. And persuasion has its limits.”

“What we need is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out, which is its exact opposite.”

“The real secret of magic is that the world is made of words, and that if you know the words that the world is made of you can make of it whatever you wish.”

“Can you keep secrets? Can you know a thing and never say it again?”

“The great man folded his palms and bowed all around him. He had one of those either/or faces that all great Indian politicians have. This face says that it is now at peace—and you can be at peace too if you follow the owner of that face. But the same face can also say, with a little twitch of its features, that it has known the opposite of peace and it can make this other face yours too, if it wishes.”

“You can choose to die. You can choose to run… but dying alone won't change a thing. Trust me on that one. If you really want things to change… you're going to have to live.”

“You can want and want and want, but if he doesn't want you back… you might as well wish the sky were red.”