Quotes from Melina Marchetta

...the greatest weapon against big stupid men was a sharp mind.

A blind man can see what she feels for you and you for her. Your souls are not merely entwined; they are fused.

Oh God, Frankie, I breathe in rhythm with that man. You think that's not my flesh and blood after all these years?

It is what a man does for strangers that counts more than what he does for his family.

I'm frightened that one morning there will not be enough to keep me going.

The idea that God works in mysterious ways is rubbish. There's nothing mysterious about his ways. They're premeditated and slightly conniving, and they place you in an impossible situation.

So between you and me," I tell Justine on the phone that night, "we're either bitchy or stupid." "Oh God," she moans. "Everyone thinks I'm an idiot." "Thanks!

It's too late. Seventeen-year-olds don't need fathers. Oh god. I'm thirty-four years old and I need a father. I can't even begin to think what my daughter needs.

You're good enough, Jacob.

A home to come back to every day of their lives. Where they would all belong or long to be. A place on the Jellicoe Road.

You list the dead. You tell the stories of the past. You write about the catastrophes and the massacres. What about the living, Finnikin? Who honors them?

It's like geographical humor. You just don't get it unless you were there.

Mama says that satisfaction isn't what I should search for. Respect is. Respect? I detest that word. Probably because in this world you have to respect the wrong people for the wrong reasons.

What do you want from me?" he asks. What I want from every person in my life, I want to tell him. More.

What are you so sad about? We're going to know him for the rest of our lives.

And life goes on, which seems kind of strange and cruel when you're watching someone die.

You go shake your foundations, Will. I think it's about time I saved myself.

Why do I feel like something's missing in my life without them and they don't feel the same about me?

What were you doing with her?" I ask quietly. "Apart from questioning her about your whereabouts, I was listening to the most intriguing story about my life moonlighting as a kidnapper.

I'm scared I'm going to spend the rest of my life in a state of yearning, regardless of where I am.

Living is the challenge. Not dying. Dying is so easy. Sometimes it only takes ten seconds to die. But living? That can take you eighty years and you do something in that time.

I've been passionate about two things in my life. One was Christina Alibrandi. The other is Josephine Alibrandi.

he knew that a part of his life was complete and that whatever path he chose, he would experience the ache of unfulfilled dreams.

Maybe she'd always been there. Maybe strangers enter your heart first and then you spent the rest of your life searching for them.