“ Is it the smoke?' the boy said, shivering slightly. 'I've never touched the stuff, myself, but how it claws at one...like a thorn in every one of your fingers, and a string around your heart...and one… Eleanor Catton
“ She gave a shiver, and suddenly clutched her arms about her body. She spoke, Gascoigne thought, with an exhilarated fatigue, the kind that comes after the first blush of love, when the self has lost i… Eleanor Catton
“ Back in the gurdwara, the ceiling doing strange things above my head, Jungli fed me with pieces of orange. Our outspoken attachment deepened. I was moved by his tenderness, his simplicity and his beau… Sarah Lloyd
“ Is China a drug? Like any drug, it depends entirely on the user’s own state of mind. If we’re making metaphors, for old China hands I’d imagine their time here draws parallels with the soaring euphori… Tom Carter
“ I loved books, even as I loved the similar way opium had of transporting a mind elsewhere Karina Cooper
“ People wonder why so many writers come to live in Paris. I’ve been living ten years in Paris and the answer seems simple to me: because it’s the best place to pick ideas. Just like Italy, Spain.. or I… Roman Payne
“ In the old days, farmers would keep a little of their home-made opium for their families, to be used during illnesses, or at harvests and weddings; the rest they would sell to the local nobility, or t… Amitav Ghosh
“ There is always a need for intoxication: China has opium, Islam has hashish, the West has woman. Andre Malraux
“ The path to a sustained victory in Afghanistan lies in improving their economy, creating jobs for the Afghanis, strengthening their government and national services, getting the provinces to trust eac… Michael DeLong
