"Can you continue to love a person regardless of such shortcomings? Maybe because you hope to save them? Or… — Helon Habila

"You must take a year off, one of these days, before you’re old and tired and weighed down by responsibility. Go away somewhere, and read. Read all the important books. Educate yourself, then you’ll see the world in a different way."

"The further from home you wander, the closer you get to Siberia."

Nostalgia settled on my shoulders like the arm of a long-lost friend, urging me to look back and listen; it had been years since I heard such morning sounds, such silence.