“It took a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realized, somehow, through the screaming in my mind, that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free.”

Lin’s concept of freedom evolves over the course of the novel. At the beginning, he is free even though other men are breaking his body. This foreshadows the novel’s conclusion, when Lin realizes that his freedom comes from the sense of emptiness he experiences when Karla still refuses to say she loves him. Lin is always free to choose how he reacts to his circumstances, even when the circumstances are forced upon him.

“The past reflects eternally between two mirrors—the bright mirror of words and deeds, and the dark one, full of things we didn’t do or say.”

As Lin remembers Karla’s eyes, he wishes he had told her about a time when he saw the same green color in nature. There is a tension between many potential outcomes. Lin has done so much in his life that it is unusual for him to think of the many things he has left undone. Khan’s later remark that each heartbeat is a universe of possibility also evokes the imagery of the bright and dark mirrors, as well as Khan’s theory of the tendency toward complexity.

“The rich, all over the world, live longer and healthier lives than the poor. There is a difference between the dishonest bribe and the honest bribe […] The dishonest bribe is the same in every country, but the honest bribe is India’s alone.”

Bribes are a part of commerce in India. But there are underhand bribes, meant to exploit and intimidate, and there are what Lin refers to as honest bribes. Honest bribes arise from the fact that the struggle in India requires everyone to work an angle to get ahead.