Quotes from Madeline Miller

Aucune loi n'oblige les dieux à être justes, Achille, reprit Chiron. Et après tout, peut-être que l'ultime chagrin consiste à se retrouver seul sur terre une fois que l'autre est parti.

A quanto si dice, quando alla fine venne scostato il velo, mia madre sorrise. E fu così che mio padre capì che era idiota. Le spose non sorridono. Qando partorì me, un maschio, mio padre mi sfilò dalle sue braccia e mi passò a una levatrice. Mossa a compassione, la donna diede a mia madre un cuscino da stringere al mio posto. Lei lo abbracciò. Non parve notare alcuna differenza.

Girls and boys would sigh over him, but all I saw were the thousand soft places of his body where his life might be ended.

I grieved for him, my hands empty and idle, plucking the air like birds peck at dry earth.

Mi tiene così stretto che riesco a sentire il debole battito del suo petto, come le ali di una falena. Un'eco, l' ultimo brandello di spirito ancora imbrigliato al mio corpo. Un tormento.

If you have to go, I will go with you. My fears forgotten in the golden harbor of his arms.

What was his best part?" "His lover, Patroclus. He didn't like me much, but then the good ones never do. Achilles went mad when he died; nearly mad, anyway.

No wonder I have been so slow, I thought. All this while, I have been a weaver without wool, a shop without the sea. Yet now look where I sail.

Gods pretend to be parents,' I said, 'but they are children, clapping their hands and shouting for more.

Name one hero who was happy. You can't.' He was sitting up now, leaning forward. He lifted an eyebrow. 'I'll tell you a secret. I'm going to be the first.' He took my palm and held it to his. 'Swear it.' 'Why me?' 'Because you're the reason. Swear it.' 'I swear it, I said, lost in the high colour of his cheeks, the flame in his eyes. 'I swear it,' he echoed. We sat like that for a moment, hands touching. He grinned, 'I feel like I could eat the world raw.

We reached for each other, and I thought of how many nights I had lain awake in this room loving him in silence.

That is how it works, Circe. I tell Father that my sorcery was an accident, he pretends to believe me, and Zeus pretends to believe him, and so the world is balanced. It is your own fault for confessing. Why you did that, I will never understand.

But I barely noticed these things. I thought only of the small island flung out somewhere in front of me, and the fair-haired boy I hoped I would find there.

Achille piange. Mi culla, e non mangia, non proferisce parola che non sia il mio nome. {...} Le sue lacrime cadono, ma non posso asciugarle.

in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a contellation was he to me.

A boy trained for music and medicine, unleashed for murder.

The sound flesh makes when it tears and re-forms and how, when you change a man, you may stop the transformation partway through, and then that monstrous, half-beast thing will die.

Whatever you do, I wanted to say, do not be too happy. It will bring fire down on your head.

The battles rent the skies: the air itself burned, and gods clawed the flesh from each other's bones.

For a hundred generations, I had walked the world drowsy and dull, idle and at my ease. I left no prints, I did no deeds. Even those who had loved me a little did not care to stay. Then I learned that I could bend the world to my will, as a bow is bent for an arrow. I would have done that toil a thousand times to keep such power in my hands.

We are all there, goddess and mortal, and the boy who was both.

Achilles returns to the tent, where my body waits. He is red and red and rust-red, up to his elbows, his knees, his neck, as if he has swum in the vast dark chambers of a heart and emerged, just now, still dripping.

I had to wait for my companion.

Mas em uma vida solitária, há raros momentos em que outra alma mergulha perto da sua, como estrelas roçando a terra uma vez por ano. Ele foi para mim uma dessas constelações.