Quotes from Geraldine Brooks

Well, I have five brothers—Rest, Thankful, Watching, Patience, Consider—and each one of them the very opposite of their name.

Suicide and sexual diseases. Two great killers of the Viennese, from the highest born to the lowest.

Icouldn't get a thing right this morning. My mind just wasn't on my work. I could barely look at the boy. I couldn't meet his eye.

I need, I suppose, to account for my life, and for my part in Caleb's crossing from his world into mine, and what flowed on from it.

David was at his best in group settings, soldier enough to join in the raucous jests, king enough to make it matter that he remembered some moments of bravery or sacrifice, and praised each man accordingly.

He found his voice in the silences, where he could sing as loud and as long as he wanted with no one to complain of it.

How could he have thought a single good thing about these men, all of their fine talk and promises. Even his pa. Not a one of them was as good as their word.

her hair tied up in an elaborate lace rigolette

Fear took each of us differently.

Mental cruelty, nondisfiguring physical abuse or just plain unhappiness are rarely considered grounds on which a woman can seek divorce.

I had begun this journey following him into the hidden corners of his world and here it ended with him crossed over into the brightest heights of mine.

The women have been told it's written in the Koran that they must do these things," she said. She could tell them it wasn't but, as an outsider and a woman, her word meant little against the word of the village sheik.

Curiosity – if not desire, if not plain kindness – might have led him to greater zeal.

She beckoned me to follow her, and we passed from the portico into rooms whose magnificence has stolen the words from the mouths of the poets.

Anger burned in him as he went to unload the painter's supplies from his wagon. He had let himself like this man, but he was no different from the rest.

David ran through concrete advantages. And then set aside the practical. The pragmatist was gone, replaced by the poet and mystic.

chacun à son goût?

can see what others cannot see, but sometimes I miss what is apparent to the dimmest simpleton.

I never promised I would write the truth. I

Well, you must rest, later. You need to be refreshed to greet the Bride Shabbat." She smiled. For a husband and wife to make love on the Sabbath was a commandment, and it was one requirement of the faith that both of them observed with joy.

Dentre meus novos deveres, tinha certeza, finalmente nenhum seria indigno de ser narrado à minha mulher. Por fim, eu me encarregaria de um trabalho cujo objetivo era melhorar a vida, em vez de assistir a seu fim.

I suppose the answer was that if something can be known, I can't stand not knowing it.

The point is the effort

I give a patient God My patient heart.