“But history does matter. There is a line connecting the Armenians and the Jews and the Cambodians and the Bosnians and the Rwandans. There are obviously more, but, really, how much genocide can one sentence handle?”
― Chris Bohjalian, quote from The Sandcastle Girls
“When it seems you have nothing at all to live for, death is not especially frightening.”
― Chris Bohjalian, quote from The Sandcastle Girls
“He recalls what that first German soldier said to his major: No God-not yours or mine-approves of what you're doing.”
― Chris Bohjalian, quote from The Sandcastle Girls
“But history does matter. There are lines connecting the Armenians and the Jews and the Cambodians and the Serbs and the Rwandans. They are obviously morbid. Really, how much genocide can one sentence handle? You get the point. Besides, my grandparents’ story deserves to be told, regardless of their nationalities.”
― Chris Bohjalian, quote from The Sandcastle Girls
“Those who participate in a genocide as well as those who merely look away rarely volunteer much in the way of anecdote or observation. Same with the heroic and the righteous. Usually it's only the survivors who speak-and often they don't want to talk much about it either. p. 75”
― Chris Bohjalian, quote from The Sandcastle Girls
“How the Germans can remain allies with the Turks is beyond me. No European nation would ever commit the sorts of crimes that this regime is blithely committing right now.”
― Chris Bohjalian, quote from The Sandcastle Girls
“we have on earth exactly the amount of time that has been allotted to us, no more and no less. We really have precious little control.”
― Chris Bohjalian, quote from The Sandcastle Girls
“It was Aldous Huxley who observed, “Every man’s memory is his private literature.”
― Chris Bohjalian, quote from The Sandcastle Girls
“be wary of what I might learn. “No. Do you think I should?” “I don’t know. Maybe,” she replied, and in my mind I saw her in her high-backed bar stool at the island in the kitchen where the kids scarfed down their Lucky Charms before walking down the hill to school. Then, before I could answer, she went on, “It will be weird if we’re related to the woman in the photo.” “In what way?” “She’s so …” “Go ahead,” I said. “She’s not like us. Even if she is related to us, she’s not like us. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s just that she’s from a different world.”
― Chris Bohjalian, quote from The Sandcastle Girls
“She talks and talks because whenever she is silent she finds herself looking at him and her breath grows a little short.”
― Chris Bohjalian, quote from The Sandcastle Girls
“are an Armenian,” says the Turk with the handgun. “I am.” “Where are you going?” “Damascus.” “Why?” “My sister lives there.” “What do you do?” “I’m an engineer. I’m working on the Baghdad Railway—the spur from Aleppo to Nusaybin.” “The British have captured Nasiriyah.” “I hadn’t heard that.” He nods. “Had you heard that an Armenian murdered a Turkish”
― Chris Bohjalian, quote from The Sandcastle Girls
Chris Bohjalian
Born place: in White Plains, New York, The United States
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“As we believed in those days, a hero slain in the service of a mighty lord or sacrificed in homage to a high god was assured of a life everlasting in the most resplendent of afterworlds, where he would be rewarded and regaled with bliss throughout eternity. And now Christianity tells us that we all may hope for an afterlife in a similarly splendid Heaven. But consider. Even the most heroic of heroes dying in the most honorable cause, even the most devout Christian martyr dying in the certainty of reaching Heaven, he will never again know the caress of this world's moonlight dappling his face as he walks beneath this world's rustling cypress trees. A trifling pleasure--so small, so simple, so ordinary--but never to be known again.”
― Gary Jennings, quote from Aztec
“When the Elemental Cross locks the Rift, it will restore the balance of nature, returning all creatures to their true essence."
Shay Frowned. "What does that mean?"
I stared at Anika, stunned as the truth settled into my bones. "It means we'll be wolves.”
― Andrea Cremer, quote from Bloodrose
“I don't know,' I cried without being heard, 'I do not know, If nobody comes, then nobody comes. I've done nobody any harm, nobody's done me any harm, but nobody will help me. A pack of nobodies. Yet that isn't all true. Only, that nobody helps me - a pack of nobodies would be rather fine, on the other hand. I'd love to go on an excursion - why not? - with a pack of nobodies. Into the mountains, of course, where else? How these nobodies jostle each other, all these lifted arms linked together, these numberless feet treading so close! Of course they are all in dress suits. We go so gaily, the wind blows through us and the gaps in our company. Our throats swell and are free in the mountains! It's a wonder that we don't burst into song.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from The Complete Stories
“You touch me again, you arrogant Ardenine swine, and I swear on the blood of Hanalea the warrior, I will geld you. Do you understand?”
― Cinda Williams Chima, quote from The Exiled Queen
“Night is real. Night is not an absence of light, but in fact, it is daytime that is a brief respite from the looming darkness…”
― Guillermo del Toro, quote from The Strain
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