Quotes from Philippa Gregory

I am the daughter of a water goddess. I am a woman with water in her veins and power in her breeding. I am a woman who makes things happen, and I am not defeated yet. I am not defeated by a boy with a newly won crown, and no man will ever walk away from me certain that he won't walk back.

Compared with the rest of us she was silver, while we were pewter, a common mixture of lead and tin.

But seeing those words that were first written, and scratched out, and rewritten again in print and bound into a book, I know that I love the process of writing and publishing. To take a thought and work on it, to render it into the clearest form possible, and then to send it out into the world—this is work so precious and so joyful that I am not surprised that men have kept it to themselves.

in the water is a woman of such beauty that her skin is paler than the white marble and her hair is darker than the night skies. He falls in love with her at once, and she with him, and he takes her to the castle and makes her his wife.

I can't think why men would believe that it is a better world where something beautiful is destroyed and something broken left in its place.

I swear I will never trust Edward again. This is not kingly, this is not as Arthur of Camelot. This is behaviour as base as an archer's bastard and I cannot meet his eyes when I see him stuffing his mouth at King Louis' table and pocketing the gold forks.

There is nothing that sickens a country more than its own people fighting against one another. It destroys families; it is killing us daily.

The truth is the last thing that matters.

You will have to reconcile yourself, as I do, as Isabel does, to being the defeated.

You don't get to be a favorite at a tyrant's court without beheading your principles every day.

When they launch snakes, you will have your namesake.

Why not?' She asks the most challenging questions that a woman can ask. 'Why should I not read? Why should I not think? Why should I not speak?

One should never offend more men than one can persuade

The more that I learn, the more sure I am that I have very much to learn...

Anne gave a little giggle. 'Oh what a tragedy Queen! You can smile while your heart is breaking because you are a woman, and a courtier and a Howard. That's three reasons for being the most deceitful creature on God's earth.

I was born to be Queen of England and mother of the next King of England. I have to fulfill my destiny, it is my God-given destiny.

I will stand up and speak in my own voice and no man will ever silence me again.

Affection is not important to you, nor to me. You want power Margaret, power and wealth; and so do I. Nothing matters as much as this to either of us, and we will sacrifice anything for it.

All this is always for nothing, he says. Don't you understand that yet? Every death is a pointless death; every battle should have been avoided. But if Edward can defeat the queen, and imprison her along with her husband, then it will indeed be over.

She tried to live like an ordinary woman, but some women cannot live an ordinary life. She tried to walk in the common ways, but some women cannot put their feet to that path. This is a man's world, Jacquetta, and some women cannot march to the beat of a man's drum. Do

He treats her as if he would spare her any fatigue, as if he has dedicated his life to her happiness.

If a woman is interested in her own struggle into identity and power, then she will be interested in other women. The lives of these, and other women, show me what a woman can do even without formal power, education, or rights, in a world dominated by men. They are inspirational examples of the strength of the female spirit.

But you will break Anne's heart.' 'Her heart has to break and her spirit has to break if she is to be any use to her family.' My mother said coldly

The king is a saint and cannot rule, and his son is a devil and should not.