“They all lived so steeped in fear that the losses they had yet to suffer had already consumed them.”

“... The women's song was always the same, as monotonous as the beating of the waves against the beach: loss, loss. The conch offered them no enchantment. When they put their ear to it, all they heard was the echo of their mourning.”

“Having a child isn't a deal you strike with life. As I said: a child is a gift. And what remains after a child is gone is the memory of the years it was allowed to live. Not its death”

“So you've stopped thinking you're going to die?Oh, I'm more certain of it than ever. But I've stopped being scared.”

“An unused conscience is no conscience at all.”

“She still held back her tears, as if subjecting herself to some terrible endurance test.”

“Now I remembered a captain's honor and his only duty: to bring his crew back alive.”

“As long as our voiced were in harmony, it didn't matter that our accents were at war.”

“Though I had no respect for Jack Lewis, I respected the hole in his chest. He was dying, and you owe the dying your attention.”

“Their eyes persecuted him everywhere, eventually following him all the way into the darkness around his bed and into his dreams, like a madness that threatened to overpower him.”

“Without discussing it with his mother, Anton went up to his teacher, Miss Katballe, and informed her that after seven years he was now quitting school. It was the best day of her life, she replied. With unexpected politeness he bowed, thanked her, and said, likewise.”