55 Quotes by Tan Twan Eng

A raintree bent towards a window in one side of the bungalow, eavesdropping on the conversations that had taken place inside over years.

Yellow and red and white dandelions lit up the sky, pinned there for a few seconds before dribbling away, only to be followed by a blue agapanthus blooming here, a red starfish flaring there.

Die while I can still remember who I am, who I used to be.

It only takes one letter of the alphabet to change reason to treason.

Peter has a lot of faults — we all do — but love makes you overlook them, and try to see what is good. I couldn’t have done that before — at the first sign of weakness I dropped the men I thought I loved. It’s different now.

Memories I had locked away have begun to break free, like shards of ice fracturing off an arctic shelf. In sleep, these broken floes drift toward the morning light of remembrance.

Anything beautiful should be given a name, do you not agree?

It was odd how Aritomo's life seemed to glance off mine; we were like two leaves falling from a tree, touching each other now and again as they spiraled to the forest floor.

For what is a person without memories? A ghost, trapped between worlds, without an identity, with no future, no past.