Mary Doria Russell citations

“How can you hear your soul if everyone is talking?”

“Rain falls on everyone, lightning strikes some. What cannot be changed is best forgotten. God made the world, and He saw that it was good. Not fair. Not happy. Not perfect. Good.”

“When it comes down to it, I don't have much in the way of advice to offer you, but here it is: Read to children. Vote. And never buyfrom a man who's selling fear.”

“Watching him with one eye, she wondered if men ever figured out that they were more appealing when they were pursuing their own work than when they were pursuing a woman.”

“Love is a debt, she thought. When the bill comes, you pay in grief.”

“Feelings are facts. Look straight at 'em and deal with 'em. Work it through, as honestly as you can. If God is anything like a middle-class white chick from the suburbs, which I admit is a long shot, it's what you do about what you feel that matters.”

“… I begin with songs. They provide a sort of skeleton grammar for me to flesh out. Songs of longing for future tense, songs of regret for past tense, and songs of love for present tense.”

“One minute, she was in the State of Puerto Rico and the next minute, she was in the State of Persistent Vegetables.”