8 Quotes by Sara Nović

The realization that my parents, too, felt pain and fear frightened me more than any strangers could.

I tried to think of a singularly American superstition. I'd learned a few from the Uncles—something about not letting one's shoes touch the kitchen table—but those were all imported from the Old World. Perhaps a country of immigrants had never gotten around to commingling the less desirable pieces of their cultures. Either that, or life there wasn't difficult enough to warrant an adult's belief in magic.

...I knew in the end the guilt of one side did not prove the innocence of the other.

I'd studied English since the first grade but considered it a murky language, one whose grammar seemed to have been made up on the fly

We entered an era of false alarms.

I was so tired of his being even-keeled in the face of all that was upsetting and ugly and illogical.

Telling my story was supposed to be a good thing but it had just made everything worse.

Ana—Ana, listen to me.' A shot. 'We're going to play a game, okay? We're going to trick the guards.' A shot. 'They're drunk—it'll be easy if you pay attention. All you have to do is stay close to me, very close—' A shot. 'Then when I fall down into the hole, you fall at the same time. Just close your eyes and keep your body straight.' A shot. 'But it won't work unless we both fall at the very same time, okay?' A shot. 'Do you understand? Don't! Don't look at me.