"Can't you feel 'em circlin' honey? Can't you feel 'em swimmin' around? You got fins to the left, fins to the right, And you're the only bait in town. You got fins to the left, fins to the right, And you're the only girl in town."

"Please don't say mañana if you don't mean it I have heard those words for so very long. Don't try to describe the ocean if you've never seen it. Don't ever forget that you just may wind up being wrong."

"We’ve gotta roll with the punches Learn to play all of our hunches. Makin’ the best of whatever comes your way. Forget that blind ambition And learn to trust your intuition. Plowin’ straight ahead come what may."

"These changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes, Nothing remains quite the same. Through all of the islands and all of the highlands, If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane."

"Mother, mother ocean, after all these years I've found My occupational hazard being my occupations just not around. I feel like I've drowned, Gonna head uptown."

"Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call. Wanted to sail upon your waters Since I was three feet tall. You've seen it all, you've seen it all.Watched the men who rode you, Switch from sails to steam. And in your belly you hold the treasure That few have ever seen. Most of them dreams, Most of them dreams."

"Come Monday, it'll be all right. Come Monday, I'll be holding you tight. I spent four lonely days in a brown L.A. haze And I just want you back by my side."

"I wish I had a pencil-thin mustache, the "Boston Blackie" kind. Or a two-toned Ricky Ricardo jacket, And an autographed picture of Andy Divine."

"I really do appreciate the fact you're sittin' here. Your voice sounds so wonderful, But your face don't look too clear. So, Barmaid, bring a pitcher, another round of brew. Honey, why don't we get drunk and screw."

"Now he lives in the islands, fishes the pilin's And drinks his green label each day, He's writing his memoirs and losing his hearing, But he don't care what most people say. Through eighty-six years of perpetual motion, If he likes you he'll smile then he'll say, Jimmy, some of it's magic, some of it's tragic, But I had a good life all the way."

"He went to Paris, looking for answers To questions that bothered him so. He was impressive, young and aggressive, Saving the world on his own. But the warm Summer breezes, The French wines and cheeses Put his ambition at bay. And Summers and Winters Scattered like splinters, And four or five years slipped away."

"The Great Filling Station Holdup"

"And now I wish I was somewhere other than here, Down in some honky tonk, sippin' on a beer. Yes, I wish I was somewhere other than here. 'Cause that great fillin' station holdup Cost me two good years."

"I never used to miss the chance to climb up on his knee And listen to the many tales of life upon the sea. We'd go sailing back on Barkentines we'd talk of things he did Tomorrow just a day away, for the Captain and the kid."

"To me it was more about eight years of bad policy before (Obama) got there that let this happen. It was Dracula running the blood bank in terms of oil and leases. I think that has more to do with it than how the president reacted to it."

"The golden rule of writing is to write what you care about. If you care about your topic, you'll do your best writing, and then you stand the best chance of really touching a reader in some way."

"Mariam: No, it is fair. I killed our husband, Laila. I deprived your son of a father. Even if we escape, I...I won't be able to look at him without shame. No, it's my fault. Take care, Laila jo."

"Laila: It isn't fair."

"Mullah Faizullah: It wasn't your fault,Mariam. Don't think this way. This will destroy you, my girl. It wasn't your fault."

"Tariq (meeting Laila after ten years): It's good to see you, Laila."

"Hasina: That's because you have a beard, my dear."

"Giti: Nobody ever came for my hand."

"Tariq: They think its sexy"

"Laila: What girls?"

"Tariq: I do it for the girls"

"Laila: Tell your secrets to the wind but don't blame it for telling the trees."

"Tariq: Who's going to tell her? You?"

"Laila: That could change"

"Tariq: She doesn't know"

"Laila (at fourteen years): What would your mother say when she saw you smoke?"

"Nana (to Mariam) : A man's heart isn't like a woman's womb, Mariam! It won't bleed, it won't make room for you. A man's heart is a wretched, wretched thing. I'm all you have in this world, Mariam and when I'm gone, you'll have nothing. You are nothing!"

"Beauty is an enormous, unmerited gift given randomly, stupidly."

"Every Afghan story is marked by death and loss and unimaginable grief. And yet, she sees, people find a way to survive, to go on."

"She was leaving the world as woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad, Mariam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad."

"I am tired and I am dying, and I want to be merciful. I want to forgive you. But when God summons me and says, But it wasn't for you to forgive, Mullah, what shall I say?"

"It does not frighten me to leave this life that my only son left five years ago, this life that insists we bear sorrow upon sorrow long after we can bear no more. No, I believe I shall gladly take my leave when the time comes. What frightens me, hamshira, is the day God summons me before him and asks, Why did you not do as I said, Mullah? Why did you not obey my laws? How shall I explain myself to him, hamshira? What will be my defense for not heeding His commands? All I can do, all any of us can do, in the time we are granted, is to go on abiding by the laws He has set for us. The clearer I see my end, hamsira, the nearer I am to my day of reckoning, the more determined I grow to carry out His word. However painful it may prove."

"The Chinese say it is better to be deprived of food for three days than tea for one."

"It always falls on the sober to pay for the sins of the drunk."

"Maybe it was senseless to want to be near a person so badly here in a country where bullets had shredded her own brothers to pieces. But all Laila had to do was picture Tariq going at Khadim with his leg and then nothing in the world seemed more sensible to her."

"And that, my young friends, is the story of our country, one invader after another. Macedonians. Sassanians. Arabs. Mongols. Now the Soviets. But we're like those walls up there. Battered, and nothing pretty to look at, but still standing."

"It wasn't easy tolerating him talking this way to her, to bear his scorn, his ridicule, his insults, his walking past her like she was nothing but a house cat. But after four years of marriage, Mariam saw clearly how much a woman could tolerate when she was afraid. And Mariam was afraid."

"Mariam is never very far, she is here, in these walls they've repainted, in the trees they've planted, in the blankets that keep the children warm, in these pillows and books and pencils. She is in the children's laughter. She is in the verses Aziza recites and in the prayers she mutters when she bows westward. But, mostly, Miriam is in Laila's own heart, where she shines with the bursting radiance of a thousand suns."

"Tariq: For you, Laila, I'd go all over the world"

"Nana (to Mariam): When I'm gone, you'll have nothing in this world. You are nothing!"

"Laila: A jeep? Maybe a jumbo jet?"

"Mariam: I can't believe what you are now, if you were a Benz before."

"And I wrote to you, Laila. Volumes. -"

"Jalil: I think you look like a queen."

"Mariam: What do you think?"

"Jalil: try it on, Mariam jo."