Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende

★★

"I do however respect and admire the Mapuche; I cannot deny that.  Worthy enemies: Spaniards and Mapuche, equally courageous, brutal...and determined to live in Chile.  They were here long before we were, and that gives them the greater right, but the will never drive us out, and apparently, we will never live together in peace."

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

★★★★★

"From the experience, I understand the danger of focusing only on what isn't there.  What if I came to the end of my life and realized that I'd spent everyday watching for a man who would never come to me?  What an unbearable sorrow it would be, to realize I'd never really tasted the things I'd eaten, or seen that placed I'd been, because I'd thought of nothing but the chairman even while my life was drifting away from me.  And yet, If I drew my thoughts back from him, what life would I have?  I would be like a dancer who had practiced since childhood for a performance she would never give."