Quotes from Deanna Raybourn

Have you ever looked a starving beggar in the eye and thought that the privileges you enjoy are nothing more than a whim of the cosmos?

in that moment I would have sold my soul to a tinker to be anywhere else.

I'm pretty sure somewhere in the afterlife, some woman is feeling ashamed of herself because her cloud isn't as silver as the angel next door's.

Veronica to Stoker: "Does this mean you will stop torturing me by displaying yourself in various states of undress?

A woman could love a jackass. She could not love a son of a bitch. Many have tried, Gideon. Many have tried.

She is wrong, you know. What you do is important. You save people," I told him, pressing my lips to the half-moon scar high upon his cheekbone. "You saved me." His arm tightened about my waist and we stood for a long moment, wrapped in each other.

Ah, that touch of asperity! You are the only one of my acquaintance who is unafraid to spice your conversation with that particular pepper.

I went to stand next to him, and he gave me his hand, warm and strong. "I am sorry I kept you waiting," I murmured. "I have waited for you the whole of my life," he replied softly. "What is another minute more?

The men stood back, chanting a song of one who would not be forgotten, of loved ones lost and returned to the earth, and of the land itself which does not die but is always born anew with each fall of the long rains. They chanted of life, which is short as a spear of summer grass or long as the heart of the Rift itself, and of the silent land that waits beyond.

And so I did not try. De Clare was a lost soul; I had seen too clearly the glint of obsession in his eyes. It was the expression worn by fanatics and evangelists the world over, the dogged determination to see only one point of view and entertain no truths but the fantasy in one's own mind. He would see this thing through to the end, no matter how many people it destroyed.

He was no respecter of institutions simply because they boasted antiquity. He believed, like all good radicals, that everything ought to be examined anew by each generation. What served society should be retained, and what did not should be discarded without sentiment or reserve.

Mrs. Clutterthorpe, I can hardly think of any fate worse than becoming the mother of six ... unless perhaps it were plague.

Will you write?" I asked. "Probably not. The pen is a demanding mistress. I take delight in thwarting her expectations.

Gentlemen are champion sulkers so long as one doesn't call the behavior by that name.

It isn't your anger that will make you good at this job. It is your joy.

Australia is full of unsuitable people—you will fit in beautifully.

The female of the species is just as prey to the passions of the flesh as the male, and with greater cause, as it is her responsibility to propagate

I suppose it is quite certain he is dead?" I asked faintly. "There are bits of him stuck to your shoe," he remarked, rather unhelpfully.

People have died for less. I know; I was there.

No Julia necesitas aventuras. Necesitas un amante unas vacaciones en el extranjero. Tienes que cortarte el pelo y nadar desnuda en un río. Necesitas comer cosas que nunca hayas visto y hablar lenguajes que no conoces. Necesitas besar a un hombre que haga que te fallen las rodillas y que te acelere el corazón. -Portia

It is seldom that a gentleman raises the subject of sewage so early in a conversation, I reflected.

Debes prestarle atención a tu corazón, aunque no sepas adonde van a conducirte sus dictados. Hacer otra cosa sería abrirle la puerta a la tristeza.

If you were a man, your ladyship, I would cordially horsewhip you for that remark. As you are not, I will simply bid you farewell and leave you to your fresh and obviously debilitating grief.' He said this last with a contemptuous glance at the Italian books piled on my desk and strode from the room.

I'm a woman. Guilt is our birthright. Guilt if we want to be mothers, guilt if we take the Pill instead or choose to abort. Guilt if we stay home with our kids or guilt if we work. Guilt if we sleep with a man, guilt if we say no. Guilt if we're lucky enough to survive for no good reason.