"She used to believe that meaning allowed a person a door to escape grief and fear. But she saw that those who were slammed and stained by violence lost the power of language and logic. It was the way to abandon emotion, a last protection for the self. They held on to just the coloured and patterned sarong a mission relative last slept in, which in normal times would have become a household rag but now was sacred." -p56, Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje