The Wind Knows My Name Quotes
"The stench of fear, like rust and rotting garbage, clung to his nostrils."
"He had the weight of the world on his shoulders."
"Rudolph had explained to Peter that for centuries his people had been discriminated against, persecuted, and expelled from many lands."
"The friendship between Adler and Steiner centered around mutual affinities and deeply held values."
"He cherished the war medal that Colonel Volker had pinned to his coat before taking him to the station."
"Samuel felt he no longer belonged to that community, and religion in general did not interest him."
"Nothing could compare to the experience of diving into an orchestral piece as if it were an ocean."
"Words dilute and deform memories, and he didn’t want to forget anything."
"She remembered little from her childhood before the border crossing, just the smell of the wood-burning stove, the dense vegetation, the taste of ripe corn, the chorus of birds, warm tortillas for breakfast, her grandmother’s prayers, her brothers’ and sisters’ cries and laughter."
"What she remembered most clearly from that time was the massacre, even though she hadn’t been there."
"The radio was always set to a station that played news and popular music."
"They had chickens, dogs, cats, and a pig who all roamed free, as did the children; no one felt the need to monitor them as they played in the mountain caves, ran through the underbrush, or swam in the ponds."
"He always said that they were poor, but less poor than others, because they didn’t have to break their backs on the coffee plantations owned by the large landholders."
"Sunday service was the social event of the week."
"The most important day of every year was when the eight-year-old children were baptized."
"After saying a brief prayer for them, the pastor gave Leticia a small plastic cross and explained that it glowed in the dark, just as Jesus’s love shone in times of darkness."
"The journey would have been arduous for Leticia if not for the bottle of valerian extract she’d been given by her teacher, who took it for insomnia."
"At the hospital, they were informed that they could get an appointment to see a doctor in two months’ time."
"Years later, Leticia tried to find out as much as possible about that terrible December in 1981 that had forever marked the course of her life."
"The bloodbath had been perpetrated by a military operative trained by the CIA at the infamous School of the Americas, in Panama, to combat insurgents from the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front."
"Edgar Cordero had arrived back at his village two days after the massacre, which had taken place while he and Leticia were in the city."
"She wasn’t in any condition to undertake the journey that her father had planned, so they waited in the city for two weeks, with no money and no friends."
"They advanced more slowly than most because Leticia was still weak; her father hoisted her on his back and carried her for long stretches, driven by pain and rage."
"The evangelical churches of the Latin community provided a support system."
"Instead of going to college as her father dreamed, Leticia ran off with her first love before finishing high school."
"The young couple’s burning passion quickly turned to aggression; they fought over jealousy, money, his drinking."
"Leticia knew very little about El Salvador beyond what she’d been taught by the teacher at the rural school in El Mozote."
"At twenty-two, between her marriages to the alcoholic plumber and the waiter who ran off with the trollop, Leticia traveled to El Salvador."
"I’m going to take you to hear the best jazz in New Orleans."
"She organized a nighttime visit to an area of abandoned houses said to be haunted by zombies, ghosts, and vampires."
"She was determined to be happy with Samuel Adler and so she was."
"She was much quicker than he was, unpredictable, explosive, and passionate."
"She possessed an intuitive intelligence and assurance that allowed her to reach a decision in a matter of seconds."
"She walked proudly into this new life without a hint of regret over all she’d lost."
"Samuel would always remember her as a new wife in London, her belly round with child, wearing a cotton sundress."
"You haven’t been able to see your little guardian angel because you’re always asleep when she comes."
"It’s much worse to make kids stay in the hielera or take them away from their mamas, don’t you think, Claudia?"
"Mama is always happy, when she smiles you can see the space between her two top teeth, and she laughs all the time."
"Frank is going to explain how my English isn’t very good so that they’ll hopefully let me speak in Spanish."
"An uncle is someone you love and he’s not my uncle; he’s bad and he hurt us."
"Ever since they brought us to this foster home I haven’t seen my angel once."
"No one has ever called me stubborn or rude before in my whole life."
"It’s better to leave a written message in the hole, but they’ll still understand if you just say it."
"Angels can’t lie, it’s against the rules; if they do they’ll get fired from their job."
"All the animals are nice, because no one bothers them and they never get hungry."
"No one is ever going to take Didi away ever again, I promise you, Claudia."
"I also heard them say they’re going to take me to a psychologist."
"The wind knows my name. And yours too. Everyone knows where we are."
"Nadine and the good-time gals vanished when Mr. Bogart was prescribed an antidepressant."
"He was very guarded with his emotions, but based on the fact that he started seeing Nadine, Leticia imagined that the pair had been madly in love."
"Nadine openly flaunted conventions and appearances."
"Before, when I lived with Tita Edu, I never wet the bed. I don’t know why it happens here."
"You must mean a corneal transplant. I’ll look into it."
"I think we need a moment. Could you call us back in about ten minutes, please?"
"It was dark, the middle of the night, he heard the sound of branches scraping the window and the screech of an owl."
"In place of the building that had housed his father’s clinic and his childhood home, he found a bank."
"He felt that the air was charged with the presence of the men, women, and children who had been murdered there, millions of lost souls."
"Affection wasn't something to be given away freely, it had to be earned."
"The pain of being orphaned as a young boy had caused him to withdraw and take refuge in his music."
"Indifference was a capital sin that had to be atoned for sooner or later."
"Love can become fraternal and sex begins to feel incestuous."
"Everything passes eventually, but it's hard to imagine the future while stuck in the immutable present."
"The only thing his grandson deserved was for life to throw him a few hard knocks, to dampen his arrogance and teach him some compassion."
"Life is regimented by schedules, distances, and routines. I, on the other hand, live day to day."
"Enslaved parents saw their children ripped away from them and sold off."
"In the months after her death, she appeared to me. I’m not a particularly imaginative man and I don’t believe in ghosts, but I swear I saw her."
"The mysterious realm of imagination, a place you can only see with the heart."