On a Woman's Madness Quotes

“At twenty-one, he got married, and from then on his wife’s piety guaranteed his loyalty to the authorities, who provided him with bread and circuses.”
― Astrid H. Roemer, On a Woman's Madness

“My parents had a proverb hanging above their bed: Those who cannot build castles in the air are not entitled to happiness. And they were the happiest couple I know!” she reassured me.
She held the palms of my hands to her face for a few minutes. When she hailed a taxi, she put me in the backseat and bid farewell with eyes full of castles in the air.”
― Astrid H. Roemer, On a Woman's Madness

“Racial hatred is unpredictable and unfathomable, and it’s there when you least expect it, and it’s deadlier than sudden blows to your naked soul. I was on my guard. I simply refused to form any relationships with white people. As far as I was concerned, they could take out their hate on the stereotype in their heads.”
― Astrid H. Roemer, On a Woman's Madness

“Why didn’t she just slap him in the face with the kitchen towel she used to dry her tears? Why didn’t she snatch the hot soup off the table? Why did she invent, the next day and every day after, sappy stories to tell the milkman, the grocer, the butcher? Why didn’t she just cut off his head?”
― Astrid H. Roemer, On a Woman's Madness