The Secret Mandarin Quotes

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

At length, when I considered it, I realized that the best of my actions were small things. Picking flowers and cooking food for my mother when she had been unwell, spending an afternoon with the children, sending money to my sister or kissing Henry�...

The Secret Mandarin

I had loved poetry and the theatre. Now I loved adventure more.

The Secret Mandarin

I am torn between the freedom of this adventure and the benefits of civilization despite its constraints.

The Secret Mandarin

If you tempted a poor man with a fortune, who could blame the fellow for taking what he could?

The Secret Mandarin

Such a night cannot be shaken from a woman’s memory. Such a night changes your life forever.

The Secret Mandarin

It seemed to me that these months of watching and listening, second-guessing words and phrases, seeking so much that was new, had somehow changed me.

The Secret Mandarin

Our children make us so vulnerable. Our parents too, I suppose.

The Secret Mandarin

We might give her presents, tell some tales, but would she ever be able to really understand what the journey had been like for us?

The Secret Mandarin

I thought of myself mixing the fragrance of a certain day – the heavy musk of the hillside after the rain with the lightness of fresh blossoms doused in the downpour. I thought of each little bottle as the essence of a happy day or a sad one. I mix...

The Secret Mandarin

People who inspire such contradictory emotions must be worthwhile, I reasoned.

The Secret Mandarin

Those who have not been stung will hardly fear a bee the same as those who have.

The Secret Mandarin

The bonds between a family are strange indeed.

The Secret Mandarin

Women the world over suffer restrictions.

The Secret Mandarin

It occurred to me that as a man I could do anything, everything I wanted.

The Secret Mandarin

What was it that marked me as a woman and was I prepared to let it go?

The Secret Mandarin

We are home to each other now.

The Secret Mandarin

I would rather be a spinster than sold off, traded in, whatever they may call it.

The Secret Mandarin