When The Moon Is Low Quotes
"The geography would become important to me only later in my life."
"No use speaking of such things. You are an intelligent girl. Trust yourself to know what’s best for you."
"Being without a mother is like being stripped naked and thrown into the snow."
"It’s best not to depend on the gray haired. We’re too close to God to rely on."
"Superstitions abound in our culture, but KokoGul took them on with a special zeal."
"Nothing is foolish to the adolescent. The adolescent acts, without questioning the wisdom of the action."
"Sweets were given to a suitor’s family as an affirmative signal, a nod of agreement to give the daughter’s hand in marriage."
"I come to the orchard when there’s something I want to avoid. Or when there’s something I want to think about... something private."
"My father loves the orchard enough to do his dawn prayers here."
"Know that your fortune is not polluted, as infant you nursed of milk undiluted."
"The labyrinth of woe behind which you are gated, from your own fancy, was borne and created."
"For punishment is not the Almighty’s intent, nor does He disrupt, mislead or torment."
"Upon our shoulders, all malaise and grief are naught but the harvest we have chosen to reap."
"In the name of God..." I whispered and began to wash my hands, mouth, and nose.
"It is early still," I’d said. "It would be good to pray for your father."
"Our home froze in time, waiting for a sign."
"Fate will make things right in the end, though only after the work has been done, the tears have been shed and the sleepless nights have been endured."
"The person most likely to drown in the river is the one who believes he can swim."
"You are a mother and a mother’s heart never guides her children down the wrong path."
"God forgive me for putting them through this."
"We were just chatting. I’m happy you are getting to know the neighborhood boys."
"It was a taste of a life so deliciously normal that Saleem wanted to fall to his knees and pray for it to last."
"Everywhere he turned, Saleem saw his father."
"My heart found an ally in Hayal, though we did not share a language."
"I could not continue telling his story for him."
"I could hear my husband’s hushed voice. I could feel his hands resting on my shoulders."
"A mother should see her son’s face too, you know."
"This is life in Intikal. Every day is a party," he said sarcastically.
"Thank God you’re home," Madar-jan whispered. "It must be so late. Get some sleep, Saleem-jan."
"Things are different outside the town’s limits. People take their own revenge when they feel they’ve been dishonored."
"We could not stay in Kabul, Madar-jan. We had nothing left. We were going to starve there—or worse."
"I wanted my children to be children. I wanted them to laugh, to play... to learn."
"We’ll be okay, Madar-_jan, you’ll see. This was the worst of it. We’ll get to England before you know it and we’ll be okay."
"God bless you for what you do to keep this family alive. So much food! How much did all this cost?"
"A whole Afghan neighborhood so far from home! God bless them..."
"Trust with caution and don’t get discouraged."
"My father was an engineer. He worked for the Ministry of Water and Electricity. His work was with water."
"What is gone is gone and will not come back."
"Everywhere, people were clustered. This man was alone."
"Maybe incomplete is the very definition of a normal family."
"Life would be different if my father were alive."
"You are welcome. Thought you would enjoy that," she said. "I wanted to talk to you and see if you have any ideas. To get to your family, you know?"
"I know you try. It’s okay. I must find another way."
"Saleem, where have you been? What happened to you?" She looked him over. "Are you all right?"
"Yes, I’m fine," Saleem said, conscious of her touch. His body tensed and she pulled back.
"I didn’t mean to make you angry or sad. I did not know. I want you to take this and do not come back here. It is better if you do not come back here."
"Just take this. And go. Please . . . please just go."
"Your situation is bad," he said simply. Saleem watched his face. There was no arguing that fact. "And if you do not tell us the truth, it will only get worse for you."
"I will tell you now," Saleem said limply. "I will tell you my story."
"My aunt is in London. They live in an apartment."
"The evil eye always lurked in shallow waters, and this was just the thing to draw it to the surface."
"Saleem nodded. He had no intention of sharing any of this with the guys in the park."
"It is bad enough to be trapped here, but to be trapped here with him... God have mercy on us."
"Maybe that was the moment a child became an adult—the moment your welfare was no longer someone else’s responsibility."
"He caught a palmful of water in his cupped hands and brought it to his lips."
"As long as Roksana was Greek, she would be held only to Greek standards."
"He believed in God, but he doesn’t believe in people."
"Refugees didn’t just escape a place. They had to escape a thousand memories."
"Truths can be wholly contradictory, the blackest black and the whitest white all at once."
"He lived in the corners that went unnoticed, among the things people swept out the back door."
"The air was chilly. Saleem stuffed his hands in his pockets, kept his head low and his eyes open."
"He pictured a girl unsullied. He pictured the girl she’d been before the world had crushed her."
"He felt himself becoming a person capable of surprising things."
"She welcomed him, making him believe that there was a way he could feel something other than loneliness and hurt."
"Mimi, the girl who needed saving, had saved him."
"He was tired of things happening to him, as if he were an object instead of a man."
"It was only then that Saleem realized the bright and hopeful Mimi he’d pictured when he’d closed his eyes did not exist and probably never had."
"Saleem took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the stand."
"He looked from Burim to Mimi. She was shaking."
"Saleem, with his backpack, looked very much like one of the many students aboard this car of the train."
"But war had a taming effect. Kabul’s children were not children for long."
"Saleem thought of his childhood friends from Afghanistan. Had they been allowed to grow up together without rocket-rain, surely they would have been just as jovial and rowdy."
"Saleem wasn’t sure what he would have been had he had a life like Roksana’s."
"This Saleem was the sum of a series of dreadful moments."
"But Padar-jan had instead chosen to keep his family in Kabul and hope for better days—despite the growing unrest, the killings, the droughts."