- U Aung Ko: We are taught that suffering is one promise that life always keeps. So that when happiness comes we know it is a gift, and it is ours only for a brief time.
- [On whether men and women are equal]
- Laura Bowman: Did you say completely equal?
- U Aung Ko: Oh, yes! A woman can even become a Buddha; but for that she must first come back as a man.
- Laura Bowman: Ah, there's always a catch.
- U Aung Ko: We will need to make an offering.
- Laura Bowman: What kind of offering?
- U Aung Ko: That would depend on how much good karma you want for your next life.
- Laura Bowman: Hmm, I can't plan that far ahead.
- U Aung Ko: Then some fresh fruit from the market will do.
- U Aung Ko: [about her dead husband and son] They are shadows as we are shadows, briefly walking the earth and soon gone.
- [last lines]
- Doctor: Who the hell are you?
- Laura Bowman: I'm a doctor, do you need any help?
- Doctor: Are you kiddin', how long can you stay?
- Laura Bowman: As long as it takes.
- [first lines]
- Laura Bowman: The trip was Andy's idea. It was easier to say yes than argue. Always that way with my sister. She meant well. Touch of the exotic east would get me away from all the things that reminded me of what happened. But it didn't. Where ever I looked, I saw only the moment when my life ended.