"When the Emperor Was Divine" - Quotation Collection - The Father

[Robin Nourie]

One of the first times we hear about the father is in the opening chapter when the girl is remembering her summer piano recital. We are told "Her father had sat in the front row...and when she was finished he had clapped and clapped."  From this little scene, where the father chose to sit "in the front row" and enthusiastically applauded his daughter's performance, we get a sense of how much the father adored his children, and encouraged and supported them.

[JP]

Our father, the father we remembered, we dreamed of, almost nightly, all through the years of the war, was handsome and strong... p.132

"I don't recognize a thing," p.133

His response was the same,'Is that so?" p.135

He was extremely polite p. 62

No hat, and those slippers, battered and faded... p.74

[Boone]

"Now whenever we passed by his door we saw him sitting on the edge of his bed with his hands in his lap, staring out through the window as though he were waiting for something to happen. Sometimes he'd get dressed and put on his coat but he could not make himself walk out the front door." (pg.136)

"Everything you have heard is true. I was wearing my bathrobe, my slippers, the night your men took me away. At the station they asked me questions. Talk to us, they said. The room was small and bare. It had no windows. The lights were bright. They left them on for days. What more can I tell you? My feet were cold. I was tired. I was thirsty. I was scared. So I did what I had to do. I talked." (pg.140)

"I admit it. I lied. You were right. You were always right. It was me. I did it. I poisoned your reservoirs. I sprinkled your food with insecticide. I sent my peas and potatoes to market full of arsenic. I planted sticks of dynamite alongside your railroads. I set your oil wells on fire. I scattered mines across the entrance to your harbors. I spied on your airfields. I spied on your naval yards. I spied on your neighbors. I spied on you--- you get up at six, you like bacon and eggs, you love baseball, you take your coffee with cream, your favorite color is blue. I crept into your while you were away and sullied your wife. Wait, wait, she said, don't go..." (pg.140-141)

[A. Leonard P. Rittler]

...a small stooped man carrying an old suitcase... p131

[Boone]

"Please write and tell me what you are interested in these days. Do you still like baseball? How is your sister? Do have a best friend?" (pg.60)

 "He always seemed happy to see us. 'So tell me the news,' he called out to us the moment we walked through the door. We sat with him in the kitchen and talked about school. The weather. The neighbors. The same things we'd talked about before the war. Nothing more. He leaned forward in his chair as though he were listening but no matter what we said...his response was the same. 'Is that so?' Always, it seemed, he had something else on his mind." (pg.135)

[Boone]

Robin what page is that on???

[Boone]

I was talking about your quote. But never mind I found it!