“...women, brave as stars at dawn”

“To start with, for example this year, 2004, is the bicentennial of Haitian independence.”

“You may be surprised what we use our dreams to do, how we drape them over our sight and carry them like amulets to protect us from evil spells.”

“I began my effort at improving my flight experiences by reading purposefully during my flights. My airplane reading would often be centered on themes. On some flights I would read only newspapers and magazines, catching up on one particular event. On other flights I would read a short novel, and finishing the entire book during the flight would give me a great thrill, as if I'd just flown a cross-Atlantic mission with Amelia Earhart.”

“I want to figure out how people can go on with their lives when mine has changed so much. I want to relearn how to breathe without carrying this big, empty cave inside me.”

“I once heard an elder say that the dead who have no use for their words leave them as part of their children's inheritance. Proverbs, teeth suckings, obscenities, even grunts and moans once inserted in special places during conversations, all are passed along to the next heir.”

“No, women like you don't write. They carve onion sculptures and potato statues. They sit in dark corners and braid their hair in new shapes and twists in order to control the stiffness, the unruliness, the rebelliousness.”

“The women in your family have never lost touch with one another. Death is a path we take to meet on the other side.”

“Old age is not meant to be survived alone," Man Rapadou said, her voice trailing with her own hidden thoughts. "Death should come gently, slowly, like a man's hand approaching your body. There can be joy in impatience if there is time to find the joy.”

“People are just too hopeful, and sometimes hope is the biggest weapon of all to use against us. People will believe anything.”

“...women, brave as stars at dawn”