Melina Marchetta Quotes

“This is war," he say quietly.
"Well thank God you're dressed for it, Griggs.”

“I still wake with your name on my lips every morning.”

“I don't say anything and he casually leans against my desk, picking up the novel that's sitting there.

"It's bullshit," he tells me, flicking through it. "There's no such thing as Atticus Finch."

I shrug. "It'd be nice if there was, though.”

“Those full of fear were the most dangerous of people.”

“When I turn around, he cups my face in his hands and he kisses me so deeply that I don't know who is breathing for who, but his mouth and tongue taste like warm honey. I don't know how long it lasts, but when I let go of him, I miss it already.”

“Do you think I don't want him to be gone more than you do? I do. Because I need to know that I can still breathe properly when he's not around. If something happens to him, I have to know that I won't fall apart…”

“Don't let anyone take care of you. Can you maybe leave that for me to do? I mean, take care of you? Feel free to take care of me in return… because I think I'll need you to do that.”

“I shrug. "I'll probably mention that I'm in love with you."
He chuckles. "Only you would say that in such a I-think-I'll-wash-my-hair-tonight tone.”

“A piece of me is gone," she told me once while we were bra shopping. "I think we're made up of all these different pieces and every time someone goes, you're left with less of yourself.”

“Fifteen minutes later I was an expert. That's all you need. I think I was even getting the upper hand, which is very simple with a guy. Anything seems to turn them on.”

“Do you love me?’ he asked instead. ‘Because if you don’t, I’d wait until you did. I’d wait weeks and months and years.”

“See, I remember love. That's what people don't understand.”

“What if she's all I give you in this life of ours, my love?" she asked quietly.
"Then I'll shout at the goddess in fury," he said fiercely. "I'll beg to know why I've been given so much when other men have so little.”

“But grief makes a monster out of us sometimes… and sometimes you say and do things to the people you love that you can't forgive yourself for.”

“We don't even love each other.
I do a bit, you know.
You do what a bit?
You know. Like you… whatever… love you a bit.
I think I kind of love you too.”

“If you weren't driving, I'd kiss you senseless," I tell him.
He swerves to the side of the road and stops the car abruptly.
"Not driving any more.”

“What do you want from me?" he asks.
What I want from every person in my life, I want to tell him.
More.”

“Be prepared for the worst, my love, for it lives next door to the best.”

“Is a person worth more because they have someone to grieve for them?”

“Comfort zones are overrated. They make you lazy.”

“Do you think people have noticed that I'm around?”
“I notice when you're not. Does that count?”

“Because being part of him isn't just anything. It's kind of everything.”

“From this distance everything is so bloody perfect.”

“Because without our language, we have lost ourselves. Who are we without our words?”

“And life goes on, which seems kind of strange and cruel when you're watching someone die.”

“How can you just forget a person completely until the moment you see his face again?”

“Maybe she'd always been there. Maybe strangers enter your heart first and then you spent the rest of your life searching for them.”

“Sir Topher finally looked up. “Because any hope beyond that, my boy, would be too much. I feared we would drown in it.”
"Then I choose to drown,” Finnikin said. “In hope. Rather than float into nothing.”

“he tells me in a tone full of ice, 'underestimate who or what I care for.”

“I’m scared I’m going to spend the rest of my life in a state of yearning, regardless of where I am.”

“No," I say, looking up at Griggs. "It's actually because my heart belongs to someone else." And if I could bottle the look on his face, I'd keep it by my bedside for the rest of my life.”

“Do something that scares you everyday.”

“People with lost personalities will suffer a great deal more than those with lost virginities.”

“If we forget who we lost, then we forget who we once were, and if we forget who we once were, we lose sight of who we are now.”

“What are you so sad about? We're going to know him for the rest of our lives.”

“If I want more, I need to go and get it, demand it, take hold of it with all my might, and do the best I can with it.”

“Are you an idiot, or an idiot?' Gargarin hissed.

'The first one. I really resent being called the second.”

“Maybe memories should be left the way they are.”

“Never underestimate the value of knowing another's language. It can be far more powerful than swords and arrows.”

“There are worse things than a lie and there are better things than the truth!”

“Just ask how I'm feeling, I want to say. Just ask and I may tell you.

But no one does.”

“He knows bad days. Bad days take him completely by surprise. They make him not trust the good days because it's likely something is lurking twenty-four hours away.”

“What's with what you're wearing?" Griggs asks while we stand outside waiting for the others.
"It's pretty hideous, isn't it?" I say.
"Don't force me to look at it," he says. "It's see-through."

That kills conversation for a couple of seconds.”

“Somehow, even in the worst of times, the tiniest fragments of good survive. It was the grip in which one held those fragments that counted.”

“I used to tell your mother she looked like Sophia Lauren." He looks at me, frowning, and then it registers.
"Oh God, some guy's using that line on you, isn't he?"
"Not just 'some guy'." I tell him. "The guy.”

“It’s against the rules of humanity to believe there is nothing we can do.”

“Living is the challenge. Not dying. Dying is so easy. Sometimes it only takes ten seconds to die. But living? That can take you eighty years and you do something in that time.”

“When one is silent, those around speak even more.”

“Our bodies aren't strangers,' he said, his voice ragged. 'Our spirits aren't strangers'. He held her face in his hands. 'Tell me what part of me is stranger to you and I'll destroy that part of me.'
And she wept to hear his words.”

“You go shake your foundations, Will. I think it's about time I saved myself.”

“I'm very disturbed to find out that the leader of the Townies has a soul and I'm beginning to develop a bit of a crush on him.”

“Don't believe in God. Love the world just the way it is.”

“And then their voices stopped and their souls stood still and they ceased being who they had been. Because who they were had always been determined by him.”

“I don't want to let go, because tonight I'm not looking for anything more than being part of him. Because being part of him isn't just anything. It's kind of everything.”

“Promise me you'll never stop dreaming.”

“Whatever is now covered up will be uncovered and every secret will be made known.”

“I'm sorry," he says, "for that time I kissed you at that party and for that time at the wedding and more than anything for the thousand times that I wanted to and didn't have the guts to.”

“But grieving people are selfish. They won’t let you comfort them and they say you don’t understand and they make you feel useless when all your life you’ve been functional to them.”

“You just have to belong. Long to be.”

“Girls under the age of fourteen are the most frightening creatures I have ever come across.”

“His voice is deep and gravelly. I once heard one of the girls say that he had the voice of a sex god, but because I've never really heard what a sex god sounds like, I can't verify that.”

“So why would I want someone to be my everything when one day they might not be around?”

“When I grow up, I'm going to be my mother.”

“In a kinder world," he whispered, "one I promise you I've seen, men and women flirt and dance and love with only the fear of what it would mean without the other in their lives.”

“She asked me what type of contraceptive I use.
Underwear. Keeping it on prevents pregnancy.”

“Because people with that much spirit frighten the hell out of me. They make me want to be a better person when I know it's not possible.”