Beneath a Marble Sky Quotes

"You should have been a poet," she replied, smiling playfully, for Father delighted in words. "We'd starve, most assuredly." "But, Arjumand, most poets write of pain, of misery, of want. I could on...

I start to speak, but Rurayya interrupts me. "Why is he so cruel, Jaha?" How many times have I pondered this question? A hundred? A thousand? "The Emperor," I reply, still somewhat unsure of the an...

Father leaned toward Mother to refill her wine goblet. I'd seen him do such tasks a thousand times, when even minor nobles had servants attend to these duties. Father, however, preferred to please...

"Sometimes, Jahanara, I wish that duty weren't such a sacred word," she admitted, slowing her pace. "But few words are more revered. Even if it is a weaker feeling than a mother's love for her daug...

"You'd better be more careful with your pets. I wouldn't like to step on them." I started to speak, but Dara continued, "After all, Hindus believe we can be reincarnated into such creatures."I fail...

Behind our craft's bow sit my two granddaughters, Gulbadan and Rurayya. No longer girls, each is a wondrous incarnation of my daughter. Looking at them, I think that time has moved too swiftly, tha...

Gulbadan glances in the direction of her distant home. "And until he's ready we will deceive him, just as Mother deceived us?" "She only deceived you, child, because she loves you.""But Mother neve...

Whenever I looked at Nizam, he glanced away. Yet I often felt his gaze on my back. In many ways he was like an older brother, protecting me from dangers I was too young to discover. Though Nizam wa...