Quotes from Melina Marchetta

I just want to wake up in the morning and for the light to be on, and I want to stop feeling like a success just because I can eat my toast and I want to be able to brush my teeth without throwing up and then when I get through all of that, I want to work at getting that look out of your eyes. That look of fear that I put there and I hate myself for that.

The next night he asked Jonah if he could take $9.49 out of Jonah's secret stash that only Danny and his mum and Jack knew about. Jonah kept it in his sock drawer next to a photograph of Jonah and a girl with sad eyes, taken in one of those railway station photo booths.

He nods. "My mum has one just the same and you have no idea how disturbing it is that it's turning me on.

The chorus of disapproval is like one of those formula songs that seem to hit number one all the time. You know the tune in a moment and it begins to bore you in two.

All I need to understand is the unwritten law of warriors," he said firmly. "And women and children are never sent to do our work without our protection." He pointed to the trees, emphatically. "That's the language I share with them.

She was the most beautiful woman in the world. If she was alive I'd probably be a better person.

You're good enough, Jacob.

Worse still, he doesn't know how to follow the piper anymore because it's a path Tom has lost faith in. And the piper knows it. Tom can see it in his father's eyes now. And the more he stares, the clearer it becomes.

Stani walks in later, glaring at them both. "Bloody bastards. One minute punching each other, next minute reading poetry. What's wrong with everyone this week?" Tom can tell that

So when good leaders don't want their people to die, they spend quite some time trying to work out how to achieve things without going to war. It's that simple!

It's hard to explain what happens when jazz and punk fuse with a violin twist but it works. Probably because Anson Choi takes off his shirt while he's playing the saxophone. Whoever's not chatting up a Cadet or a girl from Darling House or playing chess with the guys is watching the band. I turn into a groupie.

Lucian's father had warned him to fear idle men. Without the pride gained from a good day's work, they were left to their vices and the doubts that crowded their head. Their hatred. Their envy.

Was. What does was actually mean? The verb to be. Past tense of is. Does it mean that someone is no longer being?

It's like two cultures had a massive fight over his face and neither won.

No. We were jealous that Lirah had Gargarin. Cold, cold Lirah, who was bitter towards all men, loved my brother with all her heart. It made me hate her even more, because I knew this union was not one of the flesh. She hated the touch of men. He barely tolerated the touch of anyone. I couldn't bear the idea of him loving someone as much as he loved me." -Arjuro of Abroi

Best prepared for the worst, my love, for it lives next door to the best.

I look at him. "It's odious," he says. "Detention?" I ask, confused. "Huh?" We have no idea what the other is talking about. "What's odious?" I ask. "O.D.S," he says, pointing to his discman and obviously referring to some dropkick band. Like I really care.

Just having my own time-out; a bit of self-pity here, a bit of self-loathing there.

And do you want to hear something that was breaking my heart, day after day? I forgot the faces of my granddaughters in all that hatred. Hatred smothers all beauty. Beloved Isaboe has little resemblance to her older sisters, but your Phaedra — she made me remember those precious, precious girls, and I wasn't angry anymore. I just missed them, and it's the beauty in here," she said, pointing to her chest, "that made me remember them. Her beauty.

I met you at the cornerstone on the highway to bedlam./Walked with you to the pinnacle, along that ledge to hell,/Traveled along the passageway of all things aching,/But would crawl with you if you wanted me to/On the steeple point to hope./So we can tip the stars and hold the moon,/Graze the sun, but make it soon.

I'm comparing you to . . . rugby and . . . my voice breaking . . . and everything I love but don't understand." "To the failures in your life." "No. I'm comparing you to all the things I love doing best and I just can't have when I want them.

When he felt her fingers, he flinched; he had not been touched with such gentleness since his childhood. He was no stranger to women and had felt their hands on all parts of his body, but her touch made him feel like he belonged some place.

If I asked you to stay, would you?" I ask later as we're standing by his car. "Maybe I would, but I don't think you'd ask me. But I swear to God that I'll be on the first plane back if you ever need saving from anything. . . ." I shake my head again. "You go and shake your foundations, Will. I think it's about time I saved myself.

You are mistaking me for someone with choices, Froi. I don't have choices.