Melina Marchetta citations

Page 4

“There's not much you need to know about the world. Except how to use a sword and trust very few.”

“Silence is not just about secrecy, Your Majesty. It is grief and it is shame.”

“No stories or explanations,' Finnikin had once told him. 'When it comes to women, straight into an apology and you will find the rest of your life bearable.”

“Go to hell," he said, but there was a desolate fear in his eyes and I couldn't look away.
"Been there. Trust me. It's so overrated.”

“That someone can want something out of another person who gives absolutely nothing in return astounds me.”

“I want to tell him that deep down each time Hannah looked at him she was grateful it was him because Jude did something that the others didn't. He came back for her.”

“In the games of queens and kings, we leave our dreams at the door and we make do with what we have. Sometimes if we’re fortunate, we still manage to have a good life.”

“You list the dead. You tell the stories of the past. You write about the catastrophes and the massacres. What about the living, Finnikin? Who honors them?”

“I think I'm a bit in love with these girls. They make me feel giddy. Like I haven't a care in the world. Like I'm fearless.

Like I used to be.”

“We were playing Rock, Paper, Scissors," she told him once. "I was paper and she was rock so I lived and she died.”

“And at that moment Jude thought something that he would never forgive himself for.
He wished that he had never met any of them.”

“I just want it to go back to the way it was."
"It'll never go back to the way it was, Frankie. But you have to make sure it goes forward.”

“He took my hand, made me stand on the branch and asked, "What can you see from here?"
"Nothing" I said,
"Know what I can see? From this distance everything is so bloody perfect".”

“No chance. It'd be like cutting off our hands."
"Then learn to live without your hands."
"No, because then we won't be able to do this," Ben says, giving him the finger […]”

“Our spirit is mightier than the filth of our memories.”

“It's called peaceful coexistence, Santangelo. You should try it and if it works we may sell the idea to the Israelis and Palestinians”

“Do I have to be here to belong to you?' Froi asked. 'Can't I belong to you wherever I am?”

“As I walk back to the school on my own, I realise I'm crying. So I go back to the stories I've read about the five and I try to make sense of their lives because in making sense of theirs, I may understand mine.”

“Simple dreams are the hardest to come true”

“I would pick them when they bloomed. And when she called me home for supper, I'd place them in her hair and the contrast would take my breath away.”

“When he wins the bet, I tell Griggs that it will take me a lifetime to save up two trillion dollars and he tells me that he's only giving me seventy years.”

“Taylor Markham," said Raffaela, "I'm going to say a prayer for you." And although I wanted to mock her and explain I didn't believe in anything or anyone, I realised that no one had ever prayed for me before. So I let her.”

“Because today, I think I'm leaning on the side of wonder.”

“Don't ever ask me again if I hate living anywhere with you and Jasmina. This Rock reminds me of the boy I was and being with you in the palace reminds me of the man I want to be.'

'Not just any man,' she whispered. 'A King. Mine.”

“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.”

“I wish everyone would stop crying, Tom. Uncle Joe would be so angry about it." But she's crying herself now. "He'd be so angry at us, Tom, for crying so much when all he did was laugh.”

“Sometimes… sometimes keeping alive is too tiring," she whispered, wringing her hands. Before he knew what he was doing, he pressed his lips against her brow. "Don't ever say that. Ever.”

“Quintana of Charyn's body was a map of hatred.”

“A blind man can see what she feels for you and you for her. Your souls are not merely entwined; they are fused.”