# The Ministry of Time  Author:: Kaliane Bradley  ## AI-Generated Summary None ## Highlights > She twinkled at me, and I twinkled back. She was just too charming; untwinkling was not an option. When she was alone with me, she pitched her voice slightly lower than she did around the men. Even for her, girlishness was a habit that was hard to break—for safety, for camouflage. I knew that. Sometimes, just under my tongue, I felt the exclamation marks I put into my speech, demarcating the sentences I didn’t mind being broken off from my agency, as long as I was assured I would be protected from the outcome. ([Location 2010](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0CL5FT5C3&location=2010)) > I wish I could tell you how it felt to see him. He’d always lived inside me, years before I’d known him. I’d been trained to love him. ([Location 2454](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0CL5FT5C3&location=2454))