There are things that can be forgotten. And things that cannot - that sit on dusty shelves like stuffed birds with baleful, sideways staring eyes. - Arundhati Roy

In battle...enemies can't break your spirit, only friends can. (p273)

"Never counted in the "costs" of war are the dead birds, the charred animals the murdered fish, incinerated insects, poisoned water sources, destroyed vegetation. Rarely mentioned is the arrogance of the human race toward other living things with which it shares this planet. All these are forgotten in the fight for markets and ideologies. This arrogance will probably be the ultimate undoing of the human species."

In a while he reached across the table and took her hand in his. He could not have known that he was trying to comfort a building that had been struck by lightning.