272 Quotes by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Sometimes – she knows this from her own life – to get to the other side, you must travel through grief. No detours are possible.

My mother clutches at the collar of my shirt. I rub her back and feel her tears on my neck. It’s been decades since our bodies have been this close. It’s an odd sensation, like a torn ligament knitting itself back, lumpy and imperfect, usable as long as we know not to push it too hard.

I couldn’t control what was done to me. But my response to it was in my control.

To see a loved one in pain is more wrenching than to bear that pain yourself.

I thought that if lokas existed at all, good women would surely go to one where men were not allowed so that they could be finally free of male demands.

Why are you attracted to self-sabotage? I.

Love. There’s no argument, no matter how strong, that can overcome that word.

And have you come to set me free finally, Govinda?” he asked. “Have I paid sufficiently for my theft?

When your heart is crusted over with your own pain, it is easy to feel little for others.