Quotes from "Year of Living Dangerously"

"I shuffle like cards the lives I deal with. Their faces stare out at me. People who will become other people. People who will become old, betray their dreams ... become ghosts"


"To understand Java, you must understand the Wayang. The sacred shadow play. The puppet master is a priest. That's why they call Sukarno the Great Puppet Master...
(Playing with a puppet) Their shadows are souls, and the screen is heaven. You must watch their shadows... not the puppets. The right, in constant struggle with the left, the forces of light and darkness in endless balance.
In the West we want answers for everything. Everything is right or wrong or good or bad, but in the Wayang, no such conclusions exist.
Look at Prince Arjuna (picks up a puppet). He's a hero, but he can also be fickle and selfish. Krishna says to him: 'All is clouded by desire, Arjuna, as a fire by smoke, as a mirror by dust. Through these, it blinds the soul.' ... (Picking up a new puppet) This is Princess Srikandi. Noble and proud, but headstrong. Arjuna will fall in love with her. "