Elizabeth Wein Quotes

“It was a rather extraordinary conversation if you think about it -- both of us speaking in code. But not military code, not Intelligence or Resistance code -- just feminine code.”

“But a part of me lies buried in lace and roses on a riverbank in France-a part of me is broken off forever. A part of me will be unflyable, stuck in the climb.”

“You can't just sit in a corner weeping or you'll die.”

“A part of me will always be unflyable, stuck in the climb.”

“Kiss me, Hardy!’ Weren’t those Nelson’s last words at the Battle of Trafalgar? Don’t cry. We’re still alive and we make a sensational team.”

“Fight with realistic
hope, not to destroy

all the world's wrong,
but to renew its good.”

“Incredible what slender threads you begin to hang your hopes on.”

“Hope is the most treacherous thing in the world. It lifts you and lets you plummet. But as long as you're being lifted you don't worry about plummeting.”

“I am no longer afraid of getting old. Indeed I can't believe I ever said anything so stupid. So childish. So offensive and.
But mainly, so very, very stupid. I desperately want to grow old.”

“But I have told the truth. Isn't that ironic? They sent me because I am so good at telling lies. But I have told the truth.”

“Please come back soon. The window is always open.”

“There’s glory and honour in being chosen. But not much room for free will”

“Don't know how I kept going. You just do. You have to, so you do.”

“Nothing like an arcane literary debate with your tyrannical master while you pass the time leading to your execution.”

“But people need lift, too. People don't get moving, they don't soar, they don't achieve great heights, without someone buoying them up.”

“And I envied her that she had chosen her work herself and was doing what she wanted to do. I don't suppose I had any idea what I 'wanted' and so I was chosen, not choosing. There's glory and honor in being chosen. But not much room for free will.”

“Oh Julie, wouldn’t I know if you were dead? Wouldn’t I feel it happening, like a jolt of electricity to my heart?”

“It is so hard trying to say what you mean.”

“It's an illusion I've noticed before-- words on a page are like oxygen to a petrol engine, firing up ghosts. It only lasts while the words are in your head. After you put down the paper or pen, the pistons fall lifeless again.”

“One moment flying in green sunlight, then the sky suddenly grey and dark.”

“There is only one reason I did not go down in flames over the Angers, and that is because I knew I had Julie in the back. Would never have had the presence of mind to put that fire out if I hadn't been trying to save her life.”

“Theof what they will do to you is every bit as sickening in a dream as when it is really going to happen.”

“God knows what I thought! Your brain does amazing acrobatics when it doesn't want to believe something.”

“If I amlucky - I mean if I am clever about it - I will get myself shot. Here, soon.”

“She whispered, 'C'etait la Verite?' Was that Verity? Or perhaps she just meant, Was that the truth? Was it true? Did any of it really happen? Were the last three hours real? 'Yes,' I whispered back. 'Oui. C'etait la verite.”

“But I've never despised myself so much as I did that day - she was so small and - so fierce, so, it was like breaking a hawk's wings, stopping up a clear spring with bricks - digging up roses to make space to park your tank. Pointless and ugly.”

“Bloody Machiavellian English Intelligence Officer playing God”

“Five years of destruction and mayhem, lives lost everywhere, shortages of food and fuel and clothing - and the insane mind behind it just urges us all on and on to more destruction. And we all keep playing.”

“Von Linden really should know me well enough by now to realise that I am not going to face my execution without a fight. Or with anything remotely resembling dignity.”

“We make a sensational team.”

“Must stop. This ink is amazing, it really doesn't smear, even when you cry on it”