Lie Down With Lions Quotes
"Every man has a weakness, and that weakness is usually sex."
"The students were romantic, like all terrorists, and they were reluctant to risk killing a beautiful woman whose only crime was the readily pardonable one of loving a man unworthy of her."
"Spring sunlight revealed the dense blond down on her cheeks—her beard, he called it, when he wanted to tease her."
"No toilets. No electricity. No roads. No wine. No cars. No central heating. No dentists. No postmen. No phones. No restaurants. No advertisements. No Coca-Cola. No weather forecasts, no stock market reports, no decorators, no social workers, no lipstick, no Tampax, no fashions, no dinner parties, no taxi ranks, no bus queues—"
"She had not read more than a few lines of the newspaper, she realized."
"His face was perfectly regular in shape, with a high forehead, a strong, rather aristocratic nose, liquid brown eyes, and a sensual mouth."
"His great fault was that he thought too well of himself; but in this he was so naïve as to be disarming, like a boastful child."
"She had wanted a baby, and she knew Jean-Pierre did not, so she had started one by accident."
"Listening, she heard something else, and she realized that the new sound had made her aware of the old."
"The summit of mankind’s ingenuity deployed to maim illiterate farmers and knock down mud-brick houses."
"Religious conviction may thwart a timid desire but nothing can stand against genuine lust."
"This was the heat of the day, the siesta time, when she liked to be alone and relax."
"Jane felt relief like the lifting of a crushing burden."
"Nobody takes care of your money as well as you do."
"The only way not to get pregnant is never to Do It."
"There is really only one thing of permanent value that we can give these people, and that is information."
"The villagers treated it with small reverence. They prayed there, but they also used it as a meeting hall, marketplace, schoolroom and guest house."
"Jane could not see his wounds, but she could tell they must be serious."
"The child has measles, gastroenteritis and ringworm."
"All children brought to the clinic were automatically vaccinated against tuberculosis."
"Complete safety was not possible, but he took every precaution against discovery."
"Her movements were quick and graceful, like those of a craftsman—a potter molding clay, perhaps, or a bricklayer wielding a trowel."
"He saw his first teacher, the steel-rimmed Mademoiselle Médecin; Jacques Lafontaine, who had given him a bloody nose for calling him con; his mother, thin and ill-dressed and always distraught; and most of all his father, a big, beefy, angry man on the other side of a barred partition."
"They were so powerful they controlled half the world—but nevertheless there was hope for the poor, the powerless and the oppressed."
"They took away his freedom, they broke his spirit and they ruined his health."
"He wished that he could tell Jane what he was really doing here."
"She felt the initial discomfort, like a cramp, in her stomach, and then a sensation in her breast which was pleasant and rather erotic."
"The truth is, she thought, that it’s awful here."
"No Afghan would complain of blisters on his feet, even in pretense, for they had no knowledge of such things: it was as unlikely as a Gloucestershire farmer saying he had beriberi."
"God be with you, Mohammed Khan," she said when she caught up with him.
"And with you, Jane Debout," he said politely.
"He is well and happy, and learning to use his left hand. He will kill Russians with it one day."
"The omen is clear. The convoy must be diverted."
"Thank God for that," thought Jane. "I'm so relieved."
"There is to be no more killing!" she said aloud. "I will not permit it!"
"Many years ago, a foreign country asked the King of Afghanistan for five hundred warriors to help in a war. The Afghan king sent five men from our Valley, with a message saying that it is better to have five lions than five hundred foxes."
"You here in the Valley have developed the art of guerrilla warfare more successfully than they have anywhere else in Afghanistan."
"They would understand one another—they would trust me."
"I'd like to kill Ellis, he thought, if I had the nerve."
"The history books do not remember the men who almost achieved greatness."
"At least they still hugged one another in bed at night. That was something."
"All this waste and destruction happened because men such as Masud tried to resist the tide of history."
"What will I do, Jean-Pierre thought, when he cries out in pain, asking me, the doctor, to help him?"
"The future of this country is in your filthy hands, you poor mad wretch."
"No baby ever died of diaper rash, she told herself."
"Civilization," she said aloud, and Fara looked at her inquiringly.
"Is this country a house with one door, cut off from the rest of the world just because you cannot get to the Khyber Pass?"
"Today or tomorrow. He went to the Logar Valley."
"Yes—but he said he may bring someone home with him."
"Who knows what the future holds for us in these tumultuous times?"
"Something important is happening. Masud has sent out many messengers. They can't all be after wives."
"The eerie sound of the most bloodthirsty men in the world at prayer always reminded Jane of the fragility of peace."
"I forgot to ask whether your trip to Faizabad was successful."
"Obviously it will be a good thing if the Resistance is united and gets weapons from the United States."
"Feeding her baby made her feel terribly tender and protective."
"I must stop brooding... I should think positively."
"We killed them. We were the terrorists then."
"It's not just so that he can kill more people faster... The Afghans are fighting for their freedom."
"We need a central intelligence agency. We live in a hostile world and we need information about our enemies."
"Everything that has happened—your lies, my anger."
"Why don't you have supper with me? It's only bread and curds, though."
"The urge to touch him, her love of the way he smiled when he felt self-conscious, the need to feel his big hands on her skin, the obsessive wish to see him naked."
"All her old feelings had returned, momentarily: the urge to touch him, her love of the way he smiled when he felt self-conscious, the need to feel his big hands on her skin, the obsessive wish to see him naked."
"Oh, I just used to lie in the sun and think about nothing," she said.
"He likes me for my faults, she thought: my tactlessness and my quick temper and my cursing, my willfulness and my being opinionated."
"Oh, Jane, I’ve missed you. Most of the time I didn’t even realize that I was missing you."
"We’ll have to get inside this sleeping bag before too long, she thought."
"I can’t complain, thought Jean-Pierre; I’m not a hero—yet."
"He was a formidable opponent—and the battle was not yet over."
"She had never let her behavior be ruled by other people’s expectations."
"Why him? thought Jane as the tears came to her eyes."
"If I stay, not only am I liable to get caught—for we were very lucky last night—but my fragile little scheme to start these tribes working together against their common enemy will fall apart."
"I suppose I have a better chance of escaping from here with you than of escaping from Siberia alone," she said.
"Jane would have preferred to go to sleep, but she made herself wait for the food and ate ravenously when it came. It was stringy and tasteless, but she was hungrier than she had ever been in her life."
"We escaped from the Russians, she thought, as she drifted off to sleep; maybe we really will make it home. Maybe we really will."
"Her muscles seemed to hurt more now that she was relaxing."
"How pleasant it must be, Jane thought, to know nothing of passion or jealousy or betrayal, to have no feelings but warm or cold and full or empty."
"They might easily tell the Russians where we’re hiding. No, our only hope is to stay ahead of the searchers."
"It’s not for you," Ellis said harshly. "It’s for me—I refused to go on alone."
"I’m perfectly capable of bringing up a baby. What an intense relationship we would have as she grew older."
"His love must have been changed to hatred by his seething resentment and jealousy."
"Don’t pick a macho romantic, she thought, if you want a man to respect you."
"His white robes and turban stood out clearly against the gray-brown ground."
"It was like trying to shout in a dream, or run under water: events moved slowly, but he moved even slower."
"The thought flashed across his mind: I used to want to heal people."
"The path, such as it was, snaked along the cliffside."
"He wondered how much longer she could go on."
"If only the Russians would give up, or be recalled for some major battle in another part of this wretched country."
"She sat on an icy boulder on the roof of the world, while Ellis melted snow in his hands for Jane to drink."
"They would simply have to keep walking until they came across people."
"She had no feelings left for him: not an ounce of love or respect or even compassion."