From Sand and Ash

“They can take our homes, our possessions. Our families. Our lives. They can drive us out, like they've driven us out before. They can humiliate us and dehumanize us. But they cannot take our thoughts. They cannot take our talents. They cannot take our knowledge, or our memories, or our minds. In music there is no bondage. Music is a door, and the soul escapes through the melody.”

“Fear is strange. It settles on chests and seeps through skin, through layers of tissue, muscle, and bone and collects in a soul-sized black hole, sucking the joy out of life, the pleasure, the beauty. But not the hope. Somehow, the hope is the only thing resistant to the fear, and it is that hope that makes the next breath possible, the next step, the next tiny act of rebellion, even if that rebellion is simply staying alive.”

“Our immortality comes through our children and their children. Through our roots and branches. The family is immortality. And Hitler has destroyed not just branches and roots, but entire family trees, forests. All of them, gone.”

“How can you compromise with people who don't want you to exist? They want us to disappear. I can't adapt to death.”

“Maybe people had no choice but I wonder sometimes what would have happened if everyone without a choice would have made a choice anyway. If we all chose not to participate. Not to be bullied. Not to take up arms. Not to persecute. What would happen then?”

“Love had not made them poor. Love had made them wealthy. In that moment, they were royalty, a king of fortune and a queen of destiny, embracing a tiny prince of peace.”

“Life is like a long note; it persists without variance, without wavering. There is no cessation in sound or pause in tempo. It continues on, and we must master it or it will master us.”

“Many will seek to tell me what God’s will is. But nobody knows. Not really. Because God is quiet. Always. He is quiet, and my anguish is so intense, so incredibly loud, that right now I can only do my will and hope that somehow, it aligns with his.”

“My father told me once that we are on earth to learn. God wants us to receive everything that life was meant to teach. Then we take what we've learned, and it becomes our offering to God and to mankind. But we have to live in order to learn. And sometimes we have to fight in order to live.”

“Time doesn't stop or give warning. It simply ticks along, marking time, ignoring humanity.”

“He didn’t have to be immortal. He didn’t need to be a hero. He didn’t even want to be a saint. He simply wanted to be a good man worthy of Eva Rosselli. He just wanted Eva. He wanted her kisses and her eyes, her smiles and her laughter. He wanted his children in her womb and his mouth on her breasts. He wanted her legs wrapped around his hips and her arms cradling his head as he made love to her. He wanted her promises, her affection and her trust, her years and her secrets. He wanted her prayers and her pride, her tears and her troubles. He wanted Eva. And that was all”

“God makes me strong. He gives me courage. He gives me peace. He gives me purpose.”

“The longer he remained on this earth, the more he was sure that mankind had no clue about God or heaven. Not when they used him as an excuse to kill, to punish, to discriminate.”

“We are all products of the places we are raised, the people who love us or have power over us, and the things we hear, over and over again, as we grow.”

“It was love that made each touch feel like redemption and each kiss feel like rebirth. Not lust. Not pleasure. It was love that created joy.”

“God's Heart is big enough for all of mankind, yet mine can't be big enough for two?”

“The only thing that matters to me, the only thing in this whole world that truly scares me, is something happening to you. Do you know that? I think I could face anything, endure anything, if I knew for sure you were safe and well. I cannot serve the way I need to serve, I can’t be the kind of priest I need to be, and be full of fear. My faith is being drowned by my fear for you.”

“Sand and ash. The ingredients of glass. Such beauty created from nothing. It had been something Babbo had marveled about and something she’d never understood. From sand and ash, rebirth. From sand and ash, new life. With every song and with every prayer, with every small rebellion, Eva felt reborn, renewed, and she vowed to press on. She vowed to push back, to make glass from the ashes, and that courage was a victory in itself. Eva”

“Sono felice se tu sei felice.” I’m happy if you’re happy.”

“Camillo always say we are on earth to learn. I think I want to teach. I want to teach history so that the world does not have to repeat our mistakes.”

“We are at war. War has a way of stripping us of perspective. War is about life and death, and it paints everything in shades of now or never.”

“Do you know what I believe in, Angelo? I believe in my family. I believe in my father. I believe in Santino and Fabia. And I believe in you. The people I love most in the world. Love is the only thing I believe in.”

“In music, there is no bondage. Music is a door, and the soul escapes through the melody.”

“«No. Ma io le chiederei la stessa cosa. Posso servirlo solo se sono un prete? Solo se sono cattolico? Non lo credo più, monsignore. Ho visto troppo. Voglio fare il bene per dei motivi validi. Non per il timore di essere giudicato o per quello che penserà la gente. Non per le tradizioni o per le pressioni. Non perché ho paura o non mi sento all’altezza di cambiare. E non perché è ciò che si aspettano gli altri. Voglio compiere la Sua volontà. Ma questo è il mio cruccio principale, capire quale sia davvero la volontà di Dio. Non quella della Chiesa cattolica, ma la Sua volontà»”

“Eva una volta mi disse che c’erano solo due cose di cui fosse certa. Una era che nessuno conosce la vera natura di Dio. Nessuno. E l’altra cosa di cui era sicura era che mi amava. Ho scoperto di essermi ridotto alle stesse certezze. Amo Eva. L’amerò per sempre. E in quanto al resto? So solo di non sapere nient’altro. Molti cercheranno di dirmi quale sia la volontà di Dio. Ma nessuno lo sa. Nessuno lo sa veramente. Perché Dio tace. Sempre. Dio tace e la mia angoscia è talmente intensa e assordante che in questo momento posso soltanto seguire la mia volontà e sperare che, in un modo o nell’altro, coincida con la Sua.”

“La nostra immortalità si realizza attraverso i nostri figli e nipoti. Attraverso le nostre radici e i nostri rami. La famiglia è immortalità.”

“In music, there is no bondage. Music is a door, and the soul escapes through the melody. Even if it’s only for a few minutes. And everyone who listens is freed. Everyone who listens is elevated.”

“Maybe people had no choice, but I wonder sometimes what would have happened if everyone without a choice had made a choice anyway. If we all chose not to participate. Not to be bullied. Not to take up arms. Not to persecute. What would happen then?”

“They can take our homes, our possessions. Our families. Our lives. They can drive us out, like they’ve driven us out before. They can humiliate us and dehumanize us. But they cannot take our thoughts. They cannot take our talents. They cannot take our knowledge, or our memories, or our minds. In music, there is no bondage. Music is a door, and the soul escapes through the melody. Even if it’s only for a few minutes. And everyone who listens is freed. Everyone who listens is elevated.”

“It is one thing to kill someone. It is another to degrade and humiliate, to strip away a person's dignity like stripping away flesh. One made a man a murderer. The other made him a monster.”