Madeline Miller citations

“He smiled, and his face was like the sun.”

“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”

“In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”

“Name one hero who was happy.”

“There is no law that gods must be fair, Achilles,” Chiron said. “And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone. Do you think?”

“This, I say. This and this. The way his hair looked in summer sun. His face when he ran. His eyes, solemn as an owl at lessons. This and this and this. So many moments of happiness, crowding forward.”

“We reached for each other, and I thought of how many nights I had lain awake loving him in silence.”

“As for the goddess’s answer, I did not care. I would have no need of her. I did not plan to live after he was gone.”

“And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.”

“When he died, all things soft and beautiful and bright would be buried with him.”

“We were like gods at the dawning of the world, & our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.”

“There are no bargains between lion and men. I will kill you and eat you raw.”

“I feel like I could eat the world raw.”

“Chiron had said once that nations were the most foolish of mortal inventions. "No man is worth more than another, wherever he is from.”

“I am made of memories.”

“I stopped watching for ridicule, the scorpion's tail hidden in his words. He said what he meant; he was puzzled if you did not. Some people might have mistaken this for simplicity. But is it not a sort of genius to cut always to the heart?”

“Bring him back to me,' he told them.”

“He is more worth to you, perhaps. But the stranger is someone else's friend and brother. So which life is more important?”

“There was more to say, but for once we did not say it. There would be other times for speaking, tonight and tomorrow and all the days after that. He let go of my hand.”

“She wants you to be a god," I told him.
"I know." His face twisted with embarrassment, and in spite of itself my heart lightened. It was such a boyish response. And so human. Parents, everywhere.”

“You can use a spear for a walking stick, but it will not change its nature.”

“It was almost like fear, in the way it filled me, rising in my chest. It was almost like tears, in how swiftly it came. But it was neither of those, buoyant where they were heavy, bright were they dull.”

“Achilles’ eyes lift. They are bloodshot and dead. “I wish he had let you all die.”

“It is right to seek peace for the dead. You and I both know there is no peace for those who live after.”

“I shift, an infinitesimal movement, towards him. It is like the leap from a waterfall. I do not know, until then, what I am going to do.”

“I am air and thought and can do nothing.”

“Patroclus, he says, Patroclus. Patroclus. Over and over until it is sound only.”

“We are all there, goddess and mortal and the boy who was both.”

“I lay back and tried not to think of the minutes passing. Just yesterday we had a wealth of them. Now each was a drop of heartsblood lost.”