Quotes from Emma Donoghue

by her family circle. That was my phrase, one that could include me by some stretch of the imagination; 'circle' sounded too symmetrical, but it would have to do.

Really, thought Lib, who ever died exultingly? Whatever fool penned that phrase had never sat by a bed with his ears pricked for the last rasp.) Aged

And it did me no good to recall particular conversations (if indeed these were particular conversations I was remembering so vividly, rather than inventions of my uneasy brain). Remembering clarified nothing.

Men never feel quite the same about a woman's body once they know it's done that thing: widened and torn to push out a baby's head.

A veces estaría bien volver a hacerse pequeño y a veces grande, igual que Alicia.

Me acuerdo de ser educado, que es cuando la gente tiene miedo de que los otros se enfaden.

Want to go to Bed. They'll find us somewhere to sleep in a little while. No. Bed. You mean in Room? Ma's pulled back, she's staring in my eyes. Yeah. I've seen the world and I'm tired now.

It occurs to Blanche that English doesn't have French's useful distinction between libre , meaning that something's unconstrained, and gratuit , meaning that it costs nothing. Free thought, free speech, free love: the English word that Arthur was so fond of obscures the price of things.

Houses are like lots of Rooms stuck together, TV persons stay in them mostly but sometimes they go in their outsides and weather happens to them.

Daughter, he said in a voice like old wood breaking, can you ever forgive me? I could only answer his question with one of my own. Putting my hand over his mouth, I whispered, Which of us would not sell all we had to stay alive?

In fact the English nurses had spent much of their time stuffing mattresses, stirring gruel, and standing at washtubs, but Lib didn't want the nun to mistake her for an ignorant menial. That was what nobody understood: saving lives often came down to getting a latrine pipe unplugged.

Ma knows everything except the things she doesn't remember right, or sometimes she says I'm too young for her to explain a thing.

His plastic hand is up and he's waggling his fingers, I pretend I don't see. I'm not going to give him my fingers, I need them for me.

Hmm? No, it's a photo of all these streets. The camera's way up in space." "Outer Space?" "Yeah." "Cool." Officer Oh's voice gets all excited. "Three four nine Washington, shed in the rear, lit skylight . . . Got to be.

Our faith stands like an island,' he proclaims, 'lashed by a sea of doubt.

All the women I knew carried some kind of blade, though they were not all metal, or even visible. Whether something had happened to them, or whether they had only anticipated it, it kept them awake the occasional night

influenza means, she said. Influenza delle stelle—the influence of the stars. Medieval Italians thought the illness proved that the heavens were governing their fates, that people were quite literally star-crossed.

Fog makes an island of every man.

She was with Jude so rarely that when she was, every cell of her body rang with grateful knowledge of it.

Remember," she says on the way to the white car, "we don't hug strangers. Even nice ones." "Why not?" "We just don't, we save our hugs for people we love." "I love that boy Walker." "Jack, you never saw him before in your life.

None of this dirt is yours, I told her. You're as clean as rain. She kissed me, but on the forehead this time.

Evolution protects those who protect themselves.

Work will be your mother, she whispered; it will lead you through dark days; it will clear you a level place to rest at last.

I pray for John the Baptist and Baby Jesus to come around for a playdate with Dora and Boots.