Quotes from Louis de Bernieres

for the bird that cannot soar, God has provided low branches.

Dionisio arose reluctantly from his bed, went to the window to see what kind of day it was, and went to the telephone to call the police.

Quite often the dolphins save the lives of those who are drowning, and sometimes they dolphins make a mistake and try to save those who are not drowning at all but are really diving for turtles. That is something that one just has to put up with from time to time, and it serves to prove how simpatico the animals are.

There comes a point in life where each one of us who survives begins to feel like a ghost that has forgotten to die at the right time

A German plans a month in advance what is bowel movements will be at Easter, and the British plan everything retrospect, so it always looks as though everything is good as intended. The French glad everything was to be going to be having a party, and the Spanish… Well, God knows.

We soldiers knew next to nothing about what was going on in the centres of power. We received so many orders and counter-orders that there were times when we did not obey any of them at all, knowing that they were likely to be countermanded almost immediately.

Roza didn't want to go, and she made the woman promise to let her ride the horse again. It was apparently called "Russia" because it was very big, a complete liability, and always going where it wasn't wanted.

Me? I'm not lazy, I'm just passionate about leisure.

I am not a religious man, I am a materialist, but even I can see that priests are a kind of bacteria that enable people to find life digestible.

a few sagging houses whose stones had lost their mortar and were held together only by gravity and habit

I should have brought her up stupid, said the doctor at last. When women acquire powers of deduction there's no knowing where trouble can end.

There is only one thing worse than losing the one you love, and that is losing them without knowing why. If you are a dog, then your master is like a god to you, and the pain of losing him is greater still.

Even gold is worth less than bread

He felt his throat constrict. and was overcome with an emotion that he could not name. because it was a mixture of so many.

Do you know the strangest thing about being a soldier? It is that you are repeatedly ordered to commit suicide. and you obey.

No one is every only one thing. Inside one person there are so many different people, and quite often they're at war with each other, and sometimes one of them is winning, and sometimes another. We're all so hard to understand, aren't we? I don't even understand myself.

Nonetheless, I love you. Forever? In Sicily they say that eternal love lasts for two years. Fortunately, I am not Sicilian. Greek men love themselves and their mothers forever. Their wives they love for six months. Fortunately I am a woman.

Eventually, in an historic feat of compromise, democracy was restored by the abolition of elections..

Quando morrem aqueles que amamos, temos de viver por eles. Temos de ver as coisas pelos seus olhos. Temos de lembrar como é que eles costumavam dizer as coisas, e usar as palavras que eles usavam. Temos de agradecer o facto de podermos fazer coisas que eles já não podem fazer, e também de sentir uma grande tristeza por isso acontecer.

There is nothing at all wrong with our laws and institutions and our constitution, which are all democratic and enlightened. What is wrong is that they are enforced by people who do not consider themselves bound by them.

Luisa pointed up at the crucifix on the wall and asked, 'Do you believe in all that?' 'I would like to,' he replied, 'but it is too difficult.' She nodded in agreement and said, 'If the person hanging on it were a woman, then I would believe it.

A pesar de su incalculable riqueza y poder marchaba hacia la muerte con el convencimiento de que moriría sin ser amado ni respetado, y que nadie lloraría por él; que su muerte ya estaba siendo precedida por una reunión de buitres, que finalmente su vida había sido más absurda y menos satisfactoria que la de un retrasado mental congénito sin extremidades ni órganos de reproducción.

Beauty is precious, you see, and the more beautiful something is, the more precious it is; and the more precious something is, the more it hurts us that it will fade away; and the more we are hurt by beauty, the more we love the world; and the more we love it, the more we are saddened that it is like finely powdered salt that runs away through the fingers, or is puffed away by the wind, or is washed away by the rain.

The first causalities of a religion are the intentions of its founder