Quotes from Miriam Toews

My dad had said don't look, but I'd already seen him. Pickled eggs are the Devil's snack.

If God is a loving God He will forgive us Himself. If God is a vengeful God then He has created us in His Image.

I think Ray might have wanted a son. One night when I was seven or eight I announced to my family that I wanted to play hockey with the boys on Friday nights and Ray became just a little too eager. Okay he shouted. All right We have to get you a stick We have to get tape I'll be waiting in the car

Wealthier Mennonites even though they're not technically supposed to be wealthy do their drinking in North Dakota or Hawaii. They are sort of like rock bands on tour in that the rules of this town don't apply to them when they're on the road. An embarrassing situation for wealthy Mennonites is to meet other wealthy Mennonites at the swim-up bar at the Honolulu Holiday Inn.

When I opened up the bottle of wine, Thebes said whoa, you yanked that cork out of there like you were saving it from drowning. She got out her markers and drew a screaming face on the cork.

What are you bitches plotting?

Men and women will make all decisions for the colony collectively. Women will be allowed to think. Girls will be taught to read and write. The schoolhouse must display a map of the world so that we can begin to understand our place in it. A new religion, extrapolated from the old but focused on love, will be created by the women of Molotschna.

Lonely fights are the worst, she said. She'd rather lose a lonely fight. She'd rather join a losing team than win a lonely fight.

He is the same chap who informed me that there are unusually high numbers of Mennonites who suffer from depression but nobody knows why. I said, Well, thank you for that! As cheerfully as if I was accepting a plate of homemade Christmas cookies from one of my students.

Never explain, never retract, never apologize. Just get the thing done and let them howl.

I potser un no triga gaire a creure's que en realitat no existeix, va fer ella. O que la seva existència corpòria és una aberració.

Va dir que si hagués estat en aquell prat amb mi, m'hauria ajudat a aconseguir aquella sensació d'haver obtingut d'una manera o altra el perdó. Però el perdó de què en concret?, li vaig preguntar jo. D'haver robat peres?, d'haver dibuixat noies despullades? No, no, va fer ella, el perdó de ser viu, de ser al món.

El més important no és preguntar-se si les dones són animals sinó si les dones s'han de venjar del mal que se'ls ha fet. O bé si han de perdonar els homes i, amb això, aconseguir que se'ls obrin les portes del cel.

No trobeu que la mentida de fer veure que es perdona amb paraules però no de cor és més greu que el simple fet de no perdonar?

Temporal» pot significar qualsevol període de temps.

Moltes de nosaltres, va dir, ens eximim de la responsabilitat de canviar les coses aferrant-nos als sentiments del nostre passat. Llavors vivim amb llibertat, feliços, o si no som feliços del tot, almenys vivim sense una angoixa terrible.

Nic loves Elf's odd requests, each one is like a holiday for him...and he's not a Mennonite, which is important--in a man-- for Elf. Mennonite men have wasted too much of her time already, trying to harvest her soul and shackle her to shame.

L'Ona ha vingut al meu costat i mira per damunt de la meva espatlla. M'hi posarà la mà? M'observa mentre escric. Em tremola el bolígraf. No sap llegir, de manera que puc escriure aquestes paraules: «La meva ànima és teva, Ona», i ella no ho sabrà.

La llibertat és bona, diu. És millor que l'esclavitud. I el perdó és bo, millor que la revenja. I l'esperança cap a allò que és desconegut és bona, millor que l'odi al que és conegut.

Will carried Zoe on his back and zoomed around on the sidewalk and she laughed and bounced up and down and lost one of her flip-flops so we had to go back and retrace our steps in the dark which I suppose is the meaning of life.

Un moment, diu la Mariche, el que voleu dir és que els assaltants són tan víctimes com les víctimes dels assalts? Que tots nosaltres, homes i dones, som víctimes de les circumstàncies a partir de les quals es va crear Molotschna?

En aquest seu afany de poder, en necessitaven d'altres sobre qui exercir aquest poder, i aquests altres som nosaltres.

She says isn't it funny how every second, every minute, every day, month, year, is accounted for, capable of being named - when time, or life, is so unwieldy, so intangible and slippery? This makes her feel compassion towards the people who invented the concept of telling time. How hopeful, she says. How beautifully futile. How perfectly human.

Jo no he dit mai que no cregués en l'amor, diu ella. Només que no estic segura de què significa exactament. En tot cas, el que he dit abans era que no creia en la seguretat que dieu que proporciona l'amor.