Mike

“I told him,' she said, 'that a good man is as strong as the right woman needs him to be.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“Without a good woman, a man like you - men like you and me - we're just asking for trouble, yaar.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“I sat alone, on a boulder that was larger and flatter than most, and I smoked a cigarette. I smoked in those days because, like everyone else in the world who smokes, I wanted to die at least as much as I wanted to live.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“You know,' she said slowly, 'I like you, Lin.'
She stared that green fire into me. I felt myself reddening slightly, not from embarrassment, but from shame, that she'd said so easily the very words, I like you, that I wouldn't let myself say to her.
'You do?' I asked, trying to make the question sounds more casual than it was. I watcher her lips close in a thin smile.
'Yes. You're a good listener. That's dangerous, because it's so hard to resist. Being listened to-really listened to-is the second-best thing in the world.'
'What's the first best thing?'
'Everybody knows that. The best thing in the world is power.'
'Oh, is it?' I asked, laughing. 'What about sex?'
'No. Part from the biology, sex is all about power. That's why it's such a rush.'
I laughed again.
'And what about love? A lot of people say that love is the best thing in the world, not power.'
"They're wrong.' she said with terse finality. 'Love is the opposite of power. That's why we fear it so much.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram