Melina Marchetta citations

Page 2

“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.”

“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…”

“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.”

“Promise me you'll never stop dreaming.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”