Quotes from bookThe Passion
The Passion is a 1987 novel by British novelist Jeannette Winterson. The novel depicts a young French soldier in the Napoleonic army during 1805 as he takes charge of Napoleon's personal larder. The novel won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Publication and subsequent sales of the novel allowed Winterson to stop working other jobs, and support herself as a full-time writer.Though nominally a historical novel, Winterson takes considerable liberties with the depiction of the historical setting and various strategies for interpreting the historical—making the novel historiographic metafiction. The novel also explores themes like passion, constructions of gender and sexuality, and broader themes common to 1980s and 90s British fiction. Parts of the novel are set in Venice—Winterson had yet to visit the city when she wrote about it, instead the depiction was entirely fictional.Mark Knopfler wrote a song inspired by the novel, called "Done with Bonaparte." It was also the inspiration behind Hunters & Collector's song Holy Grail.
“If you should leave me, my heart will turn to water and flood away.”
Jeanette Winterson book The Passion
Source: The Passion
“Every moment you steal from the present is a moment you've lost forever. There is only now.”
Jeanette Winterson book The Passion
Variant: every moment you steal from the present is a moment you have lost for ever. There's only now.
Source: The Passion
“A bridge is a meeting place… a possibility, a metaphor.”
Jeanette Winterson book The Passion
Source: The Passion (1987)
Context: We didn't build our bridges simply to avoid walking on water. Nothing so obvious. A bridge is a meeting place. A neutral place. A casual place. Enemies will choose to meet on a bridge and end their quarrel in that void... For lovers, a bridge is a possibility, a metaphor of their chances. And for the traffic in whispered goods, where else but a bridge in the night? (p.57)
“Somewhere between fear and sex passion is. The way there is sudden. The way out is worse.”
Jeanette Winterson book The Passion
Source: The Passion (1987)
