Kingfishers Catch Fire Quotes

“Why do religions have edges?” asked Teresa. Sophie felt those edges now. She went into the Mission chapel. It was a small whitewashed room with deal pews, a strip of blue carpet, a carved lectern, and an altar; on the altar were brass vases filled with holly, and, between them, a brass cross. It was a little refuge of holiness and quiet in the press and hurry and alarms of the hospital.
“God is here,” said the printed text on the wall. “Yes,” said Sophie. “But,” she asked, “isn’t He everywhere? Then why do they make Him little?” And she thought of those edges, pressing against each other, hurting, jarring, offending, barring one human being from another, shutting away their understanding and their souls.
Yet if you have no edges, thought Sophie, how lonely, how drifting, you must consent to be.”
― Rumer Godden, Kingfishers Catch Fire

“Well give me a cup of English tea, that is all I want,' said Sister Locke.

'Tea isn't English,' snapped Sophie, and Sister Locke was hurt.”
― Rumer Godden, Kingfishers Catch Fire

“…Most of the merchants sold sham papier-mâché, cheap walnut carvings, machine-spun shawls, and Persian carpets made in Kidderminster. “That is your fault,” said Profit David. “By your own greed you tourists have debased the very things you want.”
Sophie did not like “you tourists.” “I am not a tourist,” she said with asperity.
“You are a different kind of tourist, “ said Profit David in a voice of honey and oil. “You at least, lady sahib, are prepared to pay genuine prices for genuine things.” That sounded so expensive that it silenced even Sophie The whole summer was expensive. She bought a desk, trays, a shawl, and a lamp from Profit David; and she could not resist those merchant boats.”
― Rumer Godden, Kingfishers Catch Fire

“That was true, and it was true that these people had got hold of her-but in a way that you don’t understand, said Sophie silently. No one could understand unless he too had lived here and lived through this, she thought. There was a new feeling of mutual understanding and respect between Dhilkusha and the village, each kept its distance because each now knew its place. “I could live here now,” said Sophie. “I know now how to live here.” It was ironical that now she must not stay.”
― Rumer Godden, Kingfishers Catch Fire