The Secrets Between Us Quotes

“People think that the ocean is made up of waves and things that float on top. But they forget—the ocean is also what lies at the bottom, all the broken things stuck in the sand. That, too, is the ocean.”
― Thrity Umrigar, The Secrets Between Us

“But what about a person's anger? What about her voice? Her laughter? Her arrogance? Her irreverence? Her humor, her ego, her honor, her character? Do these fingerprints of an individual life simply evaporate and disappear with the last exhale? And if that is so, what use all this struggle, misery and strife? What difference whether a woman ever lived or not? Whether she was loved or unloved, educated or illiterate, wanted or unwanted by her parents, whether or not she suffered hurt and betrayal, or whether she still managed to retain her humanity and nobility? In the end, Bhima thinks, it doesn't matter. It is all ash and dust. This is what it means to be human, she thinks: Grains of dust arranged in human form - some dark, some light, some tall, some short, some male, some female. And in the end, the same gust of wind breaks them all down.”
― Thrity Umrigar, The Secrets Between Us

“It isn’t the words we speak that make us who we are. Or even the deeds we do. It is the secrets buried in our hearts.”
― Thrity Umrigar, The Secrets Between Us

“If I could remove fear from my life, uproot it, who would I be? she wonders. What would it feel like to live for today and let the future remain in the future? How much lighter her burdens would seem.”
― Thrity Umrigar, The Secrets Between Us

“In her time, she has known the evil that men do. But nothing matches with the evil of the Gods, who, having created humanity, now spend their days teasing and testing it.”
― Thrity Umrigar, The Secrets Between Us

“unloved, educated or illiterate, wanted or unwanted by her parents, whether or not she suffered hurt and betrayal, or whether she still managed to retain her humanity and nobility? In the end, Bhima thinks, it doesn’t matter. It is all ash and dust. This is what it means to be human, she thinks: grains of dust arranged in human form—some dark, some light, some tall, some short, some male, some female. And in the end, the same gust of wind breaks them all down.”
― Thrity Umrigar, The Secrets Between Us

“It isn’t the words we speak that make us who we are. Or even the deeds we do. It is the secrets buried in our hearts.” She looks sharply at Bhima. “People think that the ocean is made up of waves and things that float on top. But they forget—the ocean is also what lies at the bottom, all the broken things stuck in the sand. That, too, is the ocean.”
― Thrity Umrigar, The Secrets Between Us

“It doesn't matter, sister. Too much thinking is bad for health. Now come on, let us sell a few more carrots and brinjals. This is who we are, not poets or philosophers.”
― Thrity Umrigar, The Secrets Between Us

“Strength, beti. Be strong. Bibi turns tearfully toward her. "How, mausi?" she asks. "How? He was my rock. How do I learn to see the world through my own eyes?" Bhima falls silent, feeling acutely her own inadequacy. By breathing one breath at a time, she wants to say. By waking up one morning after another. By putting one foot ahead of the next, until your feet recall how to walk again.”
― Thrity Umrigar, The Secrets Between Us

“Parvati has simply given words to the melody that Bhima has hummed for a long time.”
― Thrity Umrigar, The Secrets Between Us

“This randomness makes her feel like vapor, someone inconsequential and invisible.”
― Thrity Umrigar, The Secrets Between Us

“But what she is experiencing here, in the woods, is more than memory. It is feeling, sensation. She feels Parvati in the tranquility of the blue sky. She feels her in the dancing treetops. In each of the submerged stones. In”
― Thrity Umrigar, The Secrets Between Us

“She feels a sudden, indiscriminate anger, although she's unsure of its target - the Gods who toy with women like her and Parvati for their own amusement, this cruel city that begets so many poor people that it cannot take care of them, or at her own obtuseness.”
― Thrity Umrigar, The Secrets Between Us

“If she has truly been brought so low that she has to second-guess the simple act of sharing a fruit with a woman even more destitute than she, then why not relinquish all claims to human society? She may as well join the pack of stray dogs that lives just outside the slum, who snarl and wrestle each other over a bone.”
― Thrity Umrigar, The Secrets Between Us