'Freedom is a passing thing,' a man said. 'Someone can always come and snatch it away.' (p212) — Edwidge Danticat

I wish I could've done more for her, but some sorrows were simply too individual to share. (p252)

'Misery won't touch you gentle. It always leaves its thumbprints on you; sometimes it leaves them for others to see, sometimes for nobody but you to know of.' (p145)

'...Did the stars visit him upon me in caprice? To teach me that a lifetime can be vast as a hundred years or sudden as a few breaths? Enjoy this one you have left. It all passes so fast. In the time it takes to draw a breath.' (p116)