Jonathan Wright

Mahmoud was confused about what Farid said. He didn’t want to think too much about his own attitude toward Saidi or Saidi’s attitude toward the general situation. These things required a level of effort, concentration, and mental distance that Mahmoud just didn’t have right now, or else he was just trying to trick himself into thinking he didn’t.

Mahmoud preferred to see himself as stupid, at least in his dealings with himself rather than with others, because the turning points in his life had come about because of stupid things, not because of planning or intelligence

That’s how everyone wanted to remember him; death gives the dead an aura of dignity, so they say, and makes the living feel guilty in a way that compels them to forgive those who are gone.

Justice at some later stage wouldn’t do. It had to happen now. Later there would be time for revenge, for constant torment by a just god, infinite torment, because that’s how revenge should be. But justice had to be done here on earth, with witnesses present.

Hadi’s heart started pounding, but he finished his lunch.

The woman with a grudge felt a great sense of relief because of their reaction, and suddenly she didn’t hate Faraj so much.

Although he wore glasses to read, Abu Anmar wasn’t blind and could see that the junk dealer was mentally unbalanced

He believed that emotions changed memories, that when you lost the emotion associated with a particular event, you lost an important part of the event

I’d go further and say that all the security incidents and the tragedies we’re seeing stem from one thing—fear. The people on the bridge died because they were frightened of dying. Every day we’re dying from the same fear of dying. The groups that have given shelter and support to al-Qaeda have done so because they are frightened of another group, and this other group has created and mobilized militias to protect itself from al-Qaeda. It has created a death machine working in the other direction because it’s afraid of the Other. And we’re going to see more and more death because of fear. The government and the occupation forces have to eliminate fear. They must put a stop to it if they really want this cycle of killing to end.”

He makes everyone feel reassured and strengthens their faith—because he doesn’t fully believe in anything himself.