Quotes from book

The God of Small Things

“When she listened to songs that she loved on the radio, something stirred inside her. A liquid ache spread under her skin, and she walked out of the world like a witch.”

“It was a time when the unthinkable became the thinkable and the impossible really happened”

“The way her body existed only where he touched her. The rest of her was smoke.”

“They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.”

“He walked on water. Perhaps. But could he have *swum* on land? In matching knickers and dark glasses? With his Fountain in a Love-in-Tokyo? In pointy shoes and a puff? Would he have had the imagination?”

“This was the trouble with families. Like invidious doctors, they knew just where it hurt.”

“She wore flowers in her hair and carried magic secrets in her eyes. She spoke to no one. She spent hours on the riverbank. She smoked cigarettes and had midnight swims…”

“As Estha stirred the thick jam he thought Two Thoughts and the Two Thoughts he thought were these:
a) Anything can happen to anyone.
and
b) It is best to be prepared.”

“Her own grief grieved her. His devastated her.”

“What came for them? Not death. Just the end of living.”

“Madness slunk in through a chink in History. It only took a moment.”

“Ammu explained to Estha and Rahel that people always loved best what they Identified most with.”

“It is curious how sometimes the memory of death lives on for so much longer than the memory of the life that is purloined.”

“Smells, like music, hold memories. She breathed deep, and bottled it up for posterity.”

“Pointed in the wrong direction, trapped outside their own history and unable to retrace their steps because their footprints had been swept away.”

“There is a war that makes us adore our conquerors and despise ourselves.”

“And the air was full of Thoughts and Things to Say. But at times like these, only the Small Things are ever said. Big Things lurk unsaid inside.”

“By then Esthappen and Rahel had learned that the world had other ways of breaking men. They were already familiar with the smell. Sicksweet. Like old roses on a breeze.”

“That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.”