“The only life that matters is in your mind. The only truth is the one that live invisibly, that waits even after you close the book. Silence, too, is a kind of music. Silence will last.” — 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 even if you never lift a shovel or plant a cabbage, every day of your life something is written upon you. And when you die, the entirety of that written record returns to the earth. All… — Madeleine Thien Copy Share
“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
