I have the idea that we grandmothers are meant to play the part of protective witches; we must watch over younger women, children, community and also… - Isabel Allende

our demons lose their power when we pull them out of the depths where they hide and look them in the face in broad daylight. (p249)

You think in words, for you, language is an inexhaustible thread you weave as if life were created as you tell it. I think in the frozen images of a photograph. Not an image on a plate, but one traced by a fine pen, a small and perfect memory with the soft volumes and warm colors of a Renaissance painting, like an intention captured on grainy paper or cloth. It is a prophetic moment; it is our entire existence, all we have lived and have yet to live, all times in one time, without beginning or end. From an indefinite distance I am looking at that picture, which includes me. I am spectator and protagonist. I am in shadow, veiled by the fog of a translucent curtain. I know I am myself, but I am also this person observing from outside. (from Prologue)

Words are not that important when you recognize intentions.