Cereus Blooms at Night Quotes

“I wonder at how many of us, feeling unsafe and unprotected, either end up running far away from everything we know and love, or staying and simply going mad. I have decided today that neither option is more or less noble than the other. They are merely different ways of coping, and we each must cope as best we can.”
― Shani Mootoo, Cereus Blooms at Night

“I brought my face inches away from hers and whispered, 'If I were strapped like that, I would hate it, too.' And then I felt foolish, for what was the point of empathizing without taking more positive action? I wanted to touch her again but I left and returned to my room feeling impoverished and weak.”
― Shani Mootoo, Cereus Blooms at Night

“Mala faced her wall of faded cereus blooms. She was content. Oblivious to the dew that drizzled from the mudra, she rocked and dozed lightly. Scent, as though too shy for light, no longer trickled from the blossoms but Mala was not yet ready to leave the yard. Her eyes would flicker open and catch a glimpse of the day that was beginning to split the black sky apart. In that first orange light the flowers hung limp, battered and bruised, each one worn out from the frenzied carnival of moths. (140)”
― Shani Mootoo, Cereus Blooms at Night

“Somehow you don't question things until you come face to face with the person and suddenly- suddenly you realize that behind all them stories it have a flesh- and- blood, breathing, feeling person who capable of hurting, yes! Well, ask her, na. Ask her if she want to garden. I think about starting a plot for the old people to have something to do. Some people say that gardening good for old people. I am proof of that!”
― Shani Mootoo, Cereus Blooms at Night

“Lavina loved the freedom and wildness in Sarah's garden, so unlike her mother's well- ordered, colour- coordinated beds. (53)”
― Shani Mootoo, Cereus Blooms at Night

“...your name repeats itself mantra-like in my head. At night I fall asleep clinging to the hope that you are happy and well...”
― Shani Mootoo, Cereus Blooms at Night

“By the time she had picked every visible corpse off her property, the heap included ants, beetles and cockroaches, different kinds of spiders, some bees, flies, a wasp, two fetid lizard skins and the brittle remains of their skeletons, six butterflies, a stick insect the length of her forearm, two dragonflies, a handful of crickets and other creatures that in the world of naming remained untitled. The collection measured a full hand deep. She paid no attention to the odour rising out of the bucket. The scent of decay was not offensive to her. It was the aroma of life refusing to end. It was the aroma of transformation. Such odour was proof that nothing truly ended, and she revelled in it as much as she did the cereus blossoms along the back wall of the house.”
― Shani Mootoo, Cereus Blooms at Night

“every village in this place have a handful of people like you. And it is not easy to tell who is who.”
― Shani Mootoo, Cereus Blooms at Night

“Finally, nausea at my own ballooning sense of self wore me down and I slept. (17)”
― Shani Mootoo, Cereus Blooms at Night

“Chandin found that a straight-back upholstered chair had come to be marked as his. Although it was only a physical place, the chair became an antidote to the chaos of his uprootedness.”
― Shani Mootoo, Cereus Blooms at Night

“Street sweepers were pulling their wide brooms down the road and the swish of their brooms filtered through the tail-end of her dreams.”
― Shani Mootoo, Cereus Blooms at Night

“Shafts of dusty light broke through the branches of the pomerac tree outside the open window. Pohpoh stared at the glittery dust particles that rose and fell in waves around Asha's head, partially silhouetting it in a halo of shimmering light.”
― Shani Mootoo, Cereus Blooms at Night

“When Pohpoh unlatched the window above the enamel sink, yellow light sliced through the opening, hauling in a cold, fresh morning draught.”
― Shani Mootoo, Cereus Blooms at Night

“The fear of discovering his anger towards his father made his body shake.”
― Shani Mootoo, Cereus Blooms at Night