Quotes from Sarah Rayne

There is somehow something extraordinarily alluring about the scent of old paper, and the feel of brittle pages.  It's a gateway opening onto the past; it's a hand stretching out from the long-ago to clasp yours.

Angelica,' said Harry, 'you're unique. I can't think of another female who would stage a farewell scene in a situation like this. In fact, in all my experience--' 'Stretching over many nations and five continents?' 'You know,' said Harry after a moment, 'if you don't get rid of that habit of quoting, people will start to think you might be intelligent.' 'Or,' said Angelica levelly, 'that I'm hiding a heart behind the cynicism.

some quality that was there before has been stolen. The scholar is still there, thought Taliesin, but I believe that the poet has gone.

They never tell you, those poets and those lovers, that hatred and agony can take on solid substance on a green and gold spring morning, or that it can smell of newly-fried bacon and eggs.