Quotes from Gregory David Roberts

the scrambled fighting and courteous deference were both expressions of the one philosophy: the doctrine of necessity. The amount of force and violence necessary to board the train, for example, was no less and no more than the amount of politeness and consideration necessary to ensure that the cramped journey was as pleasant as possible afterwards.

Nothing grieves more deeply or pathetically than one-half of a great love that wasn't meant to be.

Feeling small and alone and lonely, I walked by memory and touch through the dark, lightless lanes of the slum.

I tried to imagine what the vision of love she was clinging to might look like, and how different it was from my own.

Fate needs accomplices

But reason didn't play a big part in the guilt I'd felt, deep in my heart, since the moment I'd seen his dead face beneath its shroud of snow. Once I'd faced it, I couldn't shake the shame. And somehow, the blame and repining sorrow changed me. I felt the vengeful stone fall from the hating hand that had wanted to throw it. I felt light, as if light itself filled me and lifted me up. And I felt free - free enough to pity Madame Zhou, and even to forgive her.

In the feeble light, it wasn't clear what I was supposed to see.

And it's impossible to despise someone you honestly pity, and to shun someone you truly love.

Don't worry... It's a great adventure, your life, and it has only just begun.

But I was alone, and for two reasons: The mafia was theirs, not mine. For them, the organisation always came first. But I was loyal to the men, not the mafia; to the brothers, not the brotherhood. I worked for the mafia, but I didn't join it. I'm not a joiner. I never found a club or clan or idea that was more important to me than the men and women who believed in it.

Nations neglect no men more shamefully than the heroes of their wars.

In the first place, I would like to make a general comment, and then I would like to follow it with a more detailed answer. Do you all allow me this? Good. Then, to the general comment—I think that suffering is the way we test our love. Every act of suffering, no matter how small or agonisingly great, is a test of love in some way.

Tell him to come back in the daylight, when I'm alive.

Her eyes were the color of the sea if the sea were perfect.

Fanatics, of all kinds, all have the same scrubbed and staring look about them, the look of people who do not masturbate, but who think about it almost all the time.

hesitated. Karla once said that men reveal what they think when they look away, and what they feel when they hesitate. With women, she said, it's the other way around. 'I'm learning what

You'd know where real suffering comes from. It's the same place where love and freedom and pride are born. And it's the same place where those feelings and ideals die. That suffering never stops. We only pretend it does. We only tell ourselves it does, to make the kids stop whimpering in their sleep.' He

I don't know what scares me more,' she declared, 'the madness that smashes people down, or their ability to endure it.

The wound healed, but it left an ugly, rippling scar. The memory of it never left me.

Sin is a measure of evil.

Every human heartbeat, he'd said many times, is a universe of possibilities.

It was as if I'd found myself in a performance of some extravagant, complex drama, and I didn't have a script.

I'm from the famous nation of Fuck You,' she retorted. 'Would you like to hear our national anthem?

I'd lost the mark on the psychic map that says You Are Here. Personality and personal identity are in some ways like co-ordinates on the street map drawn by our intersecting relationships. We know who we are and we define what we are by references to the people we love and our reasons for loving them.