“ If I look closely, I can almost see myself floating in my mother's palm. Yet, when I shut my eyes, I find a different image of my mother releasing me as we dance in the storm and twirl in separate cir… Ursula Hegi
“ Their train speeds through the cities and crosses rivers until it reaches Paris. They leave the station, their arms around each other, and walk to the Jardin des Plantes where the panther paces the le… Ursula Hegi
“ That's the nature of being a parent, Sabine has discovered. You'll love your children far more than you ever loved your parents, and -- in the recognition that your own children cannot fathom the dept… Ursula Hegi
“ High in the hazy sky, the snowfkakes looked tiny and all alike, but as they drifted past the narrow window of the sewing room, all were unique - long or round or triangular - as if they'd borrowed the… Ursula Hegi
“ Marrying a woman who was reckless must have been the ultimate reckless act, requiring a lifetime of balancing to keep both of them safe Ursula Hegi
“ She also told me it wore down her spirit to live in the desert landscape that was parched by midsummer, to plant a garden each spring and struggle to keep it alive past July. Ursula Hegi
“ Given a choice, she would rather be the one who was persecuted than the one doing the persecuting-- both had a terrible price to pay, but she would rather endure humiliation and fear than grow numb to… Ursula Hegi
“ Only a few people in Burgdorf had read Mein Kampf, and many thought that all this talk about Rssenreinheit-purity of the race-was ludicrous and impossible to enforce. Yet the long training in obedienc… Ursula Hegi
“ Trudi’s gift lay in knowing. Knowing the words that named the thoughts inside people’s minds, the words that masked the fears and secrets inside their hearts. To force their secrets to the surface lik… Ursula Hegi
“ And what she wanted more than anything that moment was for all the differences between people to matter no more - differences in size and race and belief.... Ursula Hegi
“ And yet, just because a story was a certain way didn't mean it would always be like that: stories took their old shape with them and fused it with the new shape. She didn't understand yet how all the… Ursula Hegi
“ It was the kind of silence that fills you with light and makes you believe you can do anything you want. Ursula Hegi
“ Deine Anpassungsfäheigkeit—Your ability to adapt, her husband said, is far more dangerous to you than any of them will ever be. You’ll keep adapting and adapting until nothing is left. Ursula Hegi
“ We Germans have a history of sacrificing everything for one strong leader, her father had said. It’s our fear of chaos. Ursula Hegi
“ And what she hated more than anything that moment was for all the differences between people to matter no more - no more differences in size and belief- differences that became justification for destr… Ursula Hegi
“ Said, but the school board— He opened his arms in a helpless sweep. If I can help . . . The following Wednesday the bells of the chapel did not ring, and when the old women Ursula Hegi
“ It only occurred to me much later that the summer I was fourteen I had saved a life--not the life of a stranger as I had imagined--but the life I had taken for granted and which, in the years to come,… Ursula Hegi
“ Because of the people in history, Trudi felt a far stronger link than ever before to the people in her town, and from all this grew new stories, which she told to Eva and her father, and to Frau Abram… Ursula Hegi
