Tamara

“Are we ever justified in what we do? That question ruined my sleep for a long time after I saw the tortured little mouse. When we act, even with the best of intentions, when we interfere with the world, we always risk a new disaster that mightn’t be of our making, but that wouldn’t occur without our action. Some of the worst wrongs, Karla once said, were caused by people who tried to change things.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“His smile was warm and generous - the big, open-hearted smile that the long years since then have taught me to associate with Canada and Canadians.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“Some things in life just become very clear and we don’t need a reason for them at all: I knew at that moment what I’d have to do.”
― Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin

“His simple, unbeautiful words were the clearest expression of what all prisoners, and everyone else who lives long enough, know well—that suffering, of every kind, is always a matter of what we’ve lost. When we’re young, we think that suffering is something that’s done to us. When we get older—when the steel door slams shut, in one way or another—we know that real suffering is measured by what’s taken away from us.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram