Quotes from book
On the Jellicoe Road

On the Jellicoe Road
Melina Marchetta

On the Jellicoe Road is a young adult novel by Australian novelist Melina Marchetta. It was first published in Australia in 2006 by Penguin Australia under the title On the Jellicoe Road, where it was awarded the 2008 West Australia Young Readers Book Award for Older Readers. It was later published in the United States in 2008 under the abbreviated title Jellicoe Road by HarperTeen and went on to win the 2009 Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association.

“It's funny how you can forget everything except people loving you. Maybe that's why humans find it so hard getting over love affairs. It's not the pain they're getting over, it's the love.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“Scatter?' Tate said. 'Why? We stay here. Why go anywhere else?'
'Because we'll never know how great this place is until we leave it,' Narnie said.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“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.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“I stand up and walk towards her because my days of waiting for more are over. 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.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“You know what? You didn't do anything wrong. I did. It's this dumb thing I do. I look into things and see more than I'm supposed to.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“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.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“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.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“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.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“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.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“I have one brother and I live with four hundred guys. Girls under the age of fourteen are the most frightening creatures I have ever come across.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“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.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“Strange? I don't think that word comes anywhere near it. My troops are on an overnight camp three hundred kilometres away from here. I had to sleep at the Santangelo penitentiary for pre-pubescent girls.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“Because being so dependent on people scares me.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

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

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

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

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

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

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“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.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“According to Dickens, the first rule of human nature is self-preservation and when I forgive him for writing a character as pathetic as Oliver Twist, I'll thank him for the advice.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road