“words, you see," he said, looking at me again, "allow us to make permanent what is essentially transient.Turn a world filled with injustice and hurt into a place that is beautiful and lyrical.” — Vaddey Ratner 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 our lost innocence, and in the shadow it casts over our present world, we begin to understand what… — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share Image
“Always somewhere there was light, and, though transient, it flashed all the more brilliantly because of the surrounding dark.” — Vaddey Ratner 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 up in… — 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 hit with… — Vaddey Ratner 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 want to… — Vaddey Ratner 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 know that… — 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 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 with her.… — 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 the garden,… — Vaddey Ratner 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 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 pausing every… — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share Image
