Doris Banecker

“Like 90 percent of the television they watch, it comes from the south and is shown dubbed into Yiddish. It concerns the adventures of a pair of children with Jewish names who look like they might be part Indian and have no visible parents. They do have a crystalline magical dragon scale that they wish on in order to travel to a land of pastel dragons, each distinguished by its color and its particular brand of imbecility. Little by little, the children spend more and more time with their magical dragon scale until one day they travel off to the land of rainbow idiocy and never return; their bodies are found by the night manager of their cheap flop, each with a bullet in the back of the head. Maybe, Landsman thinks, something gets lost in the translation.”
― Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen's Union

“The Santa Anas blew in hot from the desert, shriveling the last of the spring grass into whiskers of pale straw. Only the oleanders thrived, their delicate poisonous blooms, their dagger green leaves. We could not sleep in the hot dry nights, my mother and I.”
― Janet Fitch, White Oleander

“There is no man, and no place, without war. The only thing we can do is choose a side, and fight. That is the only choice we get - who we fight for, who we fight against. That is life.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“Ah, bella damigella, dignità, virtù e valore non sono riposti solo nell'abbigliamento!" esclamò Balin. "La virilità e l'onore sono celati nella persona, e vi sono molti insigni cavalieri ignoti a tutti, a riprova che il pregio e l'ardimento non hanno alcun rapporto con le vesti che indossano.”
― Thomas Malory, Storia di re Artù e dei suoi cavalieri