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1 " E chissà se ogni tanto anche tu - a casa, nella strada dove sei tornato, nella tua città -, chissà se anche tu senti, vagamente, una specie di tenue ombra sull'anima, chissà se la senti che ti accompagna e fa capolino di tanto in tanto. Come se fra i tuoi effetti personali si fosse introdotta la valigia di un altro passeggero, non del tutto diversa dalla tua, e come se fra te e le cose ci fosse un certo distacco, come se per un po' tu fossi ancora straniero qui, spaesato come eri laggiù. E a tratti guardi le scene, le strade e le persone di qui e le vedi da turista, e tutto quello che è ovvio, chiaro e normale, tutto quello che è familiare, domestico e noto, ti appare con una lucidità e un'intensità misteriose. "
― Dorit Rabinyan , All the Rivers
2 " How difficult it will be not to fall in love with him. How impossible, I thought worriedly, how tricky, to insist on not falling in love, to make my heart forget this strange, gentle man and this exciting night, to not get swept away. On the brink of sleep, enveloped in his breath, I thought how dangerous and complicated it would be, and how if I wasn't careful I might fall in love with him right at that very moment. "
3 " How do I describe him now? Where do I start? How do I distill the first impression created in those few distance seconds? How do I extract his finished portrait, composed of layer upon layer of color, back into the pale, hasty pencil sketch that my eyes drew the first time they landed on him? How can I use a mere few lines to paint the whole picture with all its breadth and depth? Is it even possible to attain that sort of scrutiny, that measure of lucidity, when the hands of loss keep touching the memory, staining it with their fingerprints? "
4 " I struggle again to draw this man's face in a crowd of faces: which dog-eared lines and frayed adjectives do I use? How do I sketch his visage, the way he looked to me then, at first sight, still mysterious? Among countless pairs of brown eyes, how to distinguish those two soft, open, wise ones, their gaze alert but slightly awkward, marveling? How to outline the lips, nose, brows, chin, so that I can see them afresh, as simple as a portrait on a cafe napkin? "
