“If the river brought us here," I ventured tentatively, "then when it reverses course, it'll carry us back.” — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share Image
“Once I believed I would live forever. Death never entered my mind. Then one day, death surprised me!” — Vaddey Ratner Death Copy Share Image
“the problem with being seven is that you're aware of so much and yet you understand so little” — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share Image
“Lightning struck, the sky roared, and the night cried a giant's tears, thunderous and inconsolable.” — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share Image
“He often lookes like this - like he wanted to escape but knew he couldn't.” — Vaddey Ratner Escape Copy Share Image
“You can dig a hole in my heart and bury all your sadness. I'll be your grave.” — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share Image
Absence is worse than death. If you suddenly disappeared without a trace, it's like you had never lived — Vaddey Ratner Absence Copy Share Image
“Perhaps it's natural for a father, for every parent, to see in his child all that's unspoiled and good.” — Vaddey Ratner Children Copy Share Image
“words, you see," he said, looking at me again, "allow us to make permanent what is essentially transient.Turn a world filled with… — Vaddey Ratner Justice Copy Share Image
“Your grief will fade…It's hard to believe this now, my friend…but it will wither and, like a flower, leave behind always a… — Vaddey Ratner Grief Copy Share Image
“For all the loss and tragedy I have known, my life has taught me that the human spirit like the lifted hands… — Vaddey Ratner Death Copy Share Image
“I thought maybe we mourned not only for the dead but also for the living. We felt their absence before we knew… — Vaddey Ratner Life Copy Share Image
“When you love a flower", he said, as if wishing to explain his altered experience, "and suddenly she is gone, everything vanishes… — Vaddey Ratner Flower Copy Share Image
“I told you stories to give you wings, Raami, so that you would never be trapped by anything-your name, your title, the… — Vaddey Ratner Stories Copy Share Image
“Always somewhere there was light, and, though transient, it flashed all the more brilliantly because of the surrounding dark.” — Vaddey Ratner Light Copy Share Image
“If you pay close enough attention, Raami, you'll realize that a single leaf can contain myriad lives imitating our own, and you'll… — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share Image
“Often I lose myself in the constellation of my own ideas, forever searching for point of illumination. But no matter where I… — Vaddey Ratner Astronomy Copy Share Image
“A story, I had learned, through my own constant knitting and reknitting of remembered words, can lead us back to ourselves, to… — Vaddey Ratner Love Copy Share Image
“Truth, she believed, lies in what is said as much as in what isn't, in the same way that a melody not… — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share Image
“...it was enough that I knew I was not alone, that, at the very least, standing here beside me was this one… — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share Image
“She loved her daughter so much that she'd give the child whatever the girl desired. One night while they were playing in… — Vaddey Ratner Children Copy Share Image
“He supposes in this way he's learned to pray not as one might to the gods but as one does by simply… — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share Image
“Poetry is like...first all you have is... A line weaving through your mind Like the tail of a child's kite Unfettered by… — Vaddey Ratner Children Copy Share Image
“No matter what ugliness and destruction you may witness around you, I want you always to believe that the tiniest glimpse of… — Vaddey Ratner Beauty Copy Share Image
“Turn your tongue seven times before speaking. This way you'll have time to think if you ought to say the things you… — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share Image
“The United States bombed Indochina with three times the tonnage of bombs used in all of World War II; Cambodia alone was… — Vaddey Ratner Bombs Copy Share Image
“Life is like that." papa turned once again to the Mekong. "Everything is connected, and sometimes we, like little fishes, are awept… — Vaddey Ratner Life Copy Share Image
