Ghosts in the Forest Quotes

“The past is fine and all, but what is really important is the world as it is, right now.”
― Corinne Purtill, Ghosts in the Forest

“You have to keep doing the things that make you feel human, to retain as much of your dignity as possible. You must do this because it is likely that the desire to live will push you in directions that you never expected to travel, and will compel you to do things you never, ever imagined you would do.”
― Corinne Purtill, Ghosts in the Forest

“But we say in Cambodia, the nice people never live long. When you live long, you have to fight with life. Nice people cannot.”
― Corinne Purtill, Ghosts in the Forest

“Cambodians resent outsiders’ implications that they are a nation of shell-shocked survivors, but in 2004 news from police stations around the country made it impossible not to notice how many seemingly pedestrian conflicts escalated into stunning violence: the farmer who beheaded his neighbor with a machete in a dispute over a fence; the disgruntled relative who stormed away from an argument at a wedding and returned to douse the guests with battery acid.”
― Corinne Purtill, Ghosts in the Forest

“There was no prayer in the forest, but we had a lot of rice,” Moun had told me. “Now, we pray but there’s no rice!” he said, breaking into a big laugh.”
― Corinne Purtill, Ghosts in the Forest

“What I learned...is the difficulty of divining the truth of another human's story. Understanding the whole of a person's life - not just what they did, but why they did it - is like constantly unfolding a puzzle, a Jacob's ladder that spills out in a new direction every time you grasp a different corner."\”
― Corinne Purtill, Ghosts in the Forest