Quotes from Philippa Gregory

I think my heart has broken, but I have offered the fragments to God.

If you hate a woman, the first thing you destroy is her reputation.

I did not seek love with Thomas, but I did not resist it. And now I am trapped in desire like a butterfly with its feet in honey, and the more I struggle, the deeper I sink.

How should I forget them? They are around me like wasps around a honeypot.

Don't waste your courage on hating him. Keep yourself to yourself. And keep up your courage.

Twelfth night, of all the nights of the year, is one where shapes shift and identities flicker.

Remember, she needs you now. Don't sell your services too cheap.

What's your family? he demanded through clenched teeth. Boleyn. What's your kin? Howard's. What's your home? Hever and Rochford. What's your kingdom? England. Who's your king? Henry. Then serve them. In that order. Did I say the Spanish queen once in that list? No. Remember it.

We all want triumph. But we all have to learn to endure what comes. We have to learn to treat misfortune and great fortune with indifference.

Where have I offended you? I take God and all the world to witness that I have been to you a true, humble and obedient wife. These twenty years and more I have been your true wife, and by me you have had many children though it pleased God to call them out of this world. And when you had me at the first I was a true maid, without touch of man—" Henry

And now I want love. Lust is no good for me. I want love. His love.

It's as if our name is both our greatest pride and our curse," I say.

She would not let it go. "I had thought to be Queen of England and see my son on the throne," she repeated.

She can be pious, she can be learned, she can be witty and wise and beautiful, but if she is married to a fool she will be "that poor Mrs. Fool" until the day he dies.

He shrugged. "Whatever does it mean? We write poems about it all day and sing songs about it all night but if there is such a thing in real life I'm damned if I know.

Eyes downcast, she went past me without a glance. Dismissively her gown brushed my knees as if I should have drawn further back, out of her way, as if everyone should always step back to let Anne through. Then she was gone and as I looked up I met the Queen's eye. She looked blankly at me as I might look at a rivalry of birds fluttering in a dovecote. It was not as if it mattered. They would all be eaten in time.

It's not a question of wanting to be queen; it's not even a question of wanting honorable love anymore. I am mad for him, I am madly in love with him. I would go to him if I had to walk barefoot. Tell me I am one of many. I don't care! I don't care for my name or for my pride anymore. As long as I can have him once more, that's all I want, just to love him; all I want to be certain of is that I will see him again, that he loves me.

This is God's victory: not mine.

To do one man's bidding to please another man and get nothing for yourself but heartbreak

It's such a pointless unhappiness. I am so tired of it. Sounds odd, doesn't it? But I am so tired of being unhappy

We say that we are the rulers of this country, but we do not make a rule of law. We say that we command these people, but we do not lead them to peace or prosperity. We, their own lords, quarrel among ourselves and bring death to their door, as if our opinions and thoughts and dreams are worth far more than their safety and health and children.

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.

And swore that whatever the obstacles before me, I should be Queen of England.

who could deny the Pope when he held the keys of heaven in his hand?