“You think that the things that matter are more difficult than words - to retreat from a confrontation, for instance, to work at changing something, truly changing something." She lifted her hand toward the bodies and the tanks. "Ai-ming, you're… — Madeleine Thien Copy Share Image
“She wanted to tell them that whatever happened, whatever they chose, one day they would have to come awake, everyone would have to stand… — Madeleine Thien Copy Share Image
“What mattered was the here and now and not the life before, what mattered were the changeable things of today and tomorrow and not… — Madeleine Thien Copy Share Image
“Bertolt Brecht: I would also like to be wise. In the old books it says what wisdom is: To shun the strife of the… — Madeleine Thien Copy Share Image
“The things you experience," she continued, "are written on your cells as memories and patterns, which are reprinted again on the next generation. And… — Madeleine Thien Copy Share Image
“IN THOSE DAYS, your village might change hands every few weeks, one day to the Communists, the next to the Nationalists, the next to… — Madeleine Thien Copy Share Image
“He kisses her, and she knows, somehow, that he is asking for help, for an end to the sadness they are causing one another.… — Madeleine Thien Copy Share Image
“If they want to come for you, they will come, and it doesn't matter what you read or what you failed to read. The… — Madeleine Thien Copy Share Image
“If some people say what is in their hearts and other people say what glides easily off the tongue, how can we talk to… — Madeleine Thien Copy Share Image
“When she returned, she was full of life, impassioned. She seemed to want change, within herself, between them, and she believed all things were… — Madeleine Thien Copy Share Image
“She saw a soldier strike a boy ahead of her with his baton. Behind him, a girl turned and spat in the soldier’s face.… — Madeleine Thien Copy Share Image
