The Forest Of Enchantments Quotes
"In the midst of darkness, remember this conversation, what I told you today. It’ll help you see past the darkness. It’ll help you endure."
"Our time is almost up, so I’ll end with one last piece of advice: If you want to stand up against wrongdoing, if you want to bring about change, do it in a way that doesn’t bruise a man’s pride. You’ll have a better chance of success."
"I realized that there were many portraits of her, each different in a significant way. It gave me the courage to write my own version."
"Sometimes I dreamed that I was walking the wilderness with its swaying grasses, its leaping, golden beasts, the earth-mother the way she’d been before people bent her to their desires."
"This was my first lesson on the nature of love: that in a moment it could fulfil the cravings of a lifetime, like a light that someone might shine into a cavern that has been dark for a million years."
"The truth was, I didn’t know how to write Sita’s story. I wrote the other books because they were easier, and because I was afraid of tackling what I knew, deep down, to be the most challenging project of my life."
"I waited until the assembly was dispersed, each to his or her task, and then I took the manuscript back to Valmiki."
"Be careful with her. I’ve heard that she’s as changeable as clouds in a windy sky. If she takes a dislike to you, your life could become difficult."
"I thought of what the bow had taught me. I retreated to a place of silence within. My distress fell away and I was able to pray."
"Now you are princesses of Ayodhya, it’s only proper that you should be served by your own people."
"We come into the world alone, and we leave it alone. And in between, too, if it is destined, we’ll be alone."
"Remember, you can be your own worst enemy—or your best friend."
"No blame should ever attach to a king, for then how can he pronounce judgement on another?"
"I’ll do anything I can to help my father keep his word."
"The more love we distribute, the more it grows."
"What else can I do without going against my father?"
"I don’t believe in giving in to fate, not without a good fight."
"The wise man accepts it calmly. Who knows why I’m going into the forest, and whom I’ll meet there?"
"That may be so, but it’s not my vision of kingship."
"I don’t care how much hardship we face in the forest. At least we’ll be together as we go through our troubles."
"That’s right. You shouldn’t have nagged him to go. We both told you something was very wrong with that deer."
"I’m not going to be able do that. You see, I’m going to the forest with you."
"A huge change seems to have occurred among the rakshasas."
"You’re so concerned about everyone else. But what about me? Have you forgotten about me?"
"How could she bear to tell them that she’d sent off their carefully nurtured daughter to wander in the wilderness?"
"A man stood in the clearing, just outside the boundary Lakshman had drawn around me, its fiery contours now faded into dusty ordinariness."
"‘Ten headed—it refers to the many weaknesses that make me stumble on the spiritual path."
"‘Sita,’ he said, ‘Sita.’ He spoke my name slowly, meditatively."
"‘There are no easy answers,’ Dasharath’s voice said inside my head."
"‘Go ahead and do what you will,’ I gasped while I still had the strength to speak."
"This is what I’m going to do instead: I’ll take you away to my kingdom."
"‘My Lord,’ Queen Mandodari said in a strained voice, ‘I need to speak with you urgently.’"
"I am Ravan, ruler of Lanka-across-the-ocean."
"Hear me, spirits of the island, the sea and the forest."
"Please forgive me, my daughter, and let me make your life a little easier for you."
"The virtue of the queen of Ayodhya has to be above all suspicion."
"You did, too, for some mysterious reason, as strongly now as when his body was placed on it."
"The way I lived now, the way I handled my joys and especially my sorrows, would leave a mark upon human civilization."
"Bharat had moved out of the palace to the small town of Nandigram, refusing to enjoy any royal comforts until Ram returned home."
"Thank you, I said silently to Pushpak, for giving my husband and me this one night to call our very own."
"But I, too, had played my part in bringing about this destruction."
"You lose [your dignity] only by your own actions."
"You aren’t some weak-willed wench. You can control your emotions."
"It meant taking the challenges thrown at us and dealing with them until we grew stronger than them."
"I’m going to love you enough for mother and father both, so you feel no lack."
"I can’t control what is done to me. But my response to it is in my control."
"What has happened to me shouldn’t ruin that, otherwise it’ll be an added sorrow for me to bear."
"They’ll be even greater warriors and kings than their father."
"Their greatest teacher would be their mother. Their world would be that of the hermitage. Their playground would be the forest."
"How wrong I was. His name sent a sharp stab of pain through me, worse than anything I’d experienced during the birthing."
"They may have lost their father, but they’d gained an entire community to love them unreservedly."
"As soon as they were old enough, Valmiki made sure Lav and Kush received a proper education."
"Motherhood taught me something new about love. It was the one relationship where you gave everything you had and then wished you had more to give."