Quotes from Melina Marchetta

I had a life with people who I would die for! You've ruined everything. I despise you," he spat. "You're supposed to despise him," Arjuro muttered. "He's your father.

I'm angry that I want to cry because I feel like I've been manipulated by the soundtrack in my head - the same one that made me cry in some shit sentimental movie with Julia Roberts where the mum is dying of cancer.

I don't get chosen for things unless there is a motive.

Everyone else would have danced around the truth for too long a time. Lirah, was able to slap them in the face with it until it could be avoided no longer.

She told him that from this angle the treetops looked like cauliflower and she had once heard them beckon her to jump, promising her that if she did, they'd bounce her back in the air again. Some days, like today, he was petrified she'd listen to them.

And it hurts to be feeling this much

It is against the rules of humanity to believe there is nothing we can do.

Just say up on the hill is the meaning of life and someone knew it and they wanted everyone else to enjoy it. So they put a red vinyl sofa up there.

If your people mean no offense, they should not speak their thoughts out loud in front of their children, Tesadora. Because it will be their children who come to slaughter us one day, all because of the careless words passed down by their elders who meant no harm.

He kisses her and wants to beg her and the others to never give up on him. Ever. But he gets a feeling that he would be preaching to the converted

And won't he grow up to be the healthiest of young men, all because she kept him safe? Ready for the world. Ready to one day conquer it. To travel. Get on a train. Go to work. Get blown out of her life. Maybe she should be having that glass of wine and cigarette after all.

You chicks get hot and bothered about anything.

If Froi understood anything, it was that in this world one's worth came from others.

I want to cry because my mind is working too much

Part of Quintana had left this world and Froi knew that part of him was gone as well.

He held her against him and for once he understood what she had felt every day that he had known her

They camped that night under a full moon and a sky crowded with stars that made Froi forget that there was an old man waiting to die and remember that there was a kingdom dying to live.

Not about the Japanese, but about moments of perfection. commit it to memory and make good use of it.

The truth doesn't set you free, you know. It makes you feel awkward and embarrassed and defense-less and red in the face and horrified and petrified and vulnerable. But free? I don't feel free. I feel like shit.

We make weird friends," I say instead. "I've never been into the f-word with people." "I'm privileged, then? Why me?" He thinks for a moment and then shrugs again. "You're the realest person I've ever known." "Is that good or bad?" "It's fucking awful. There's not much room for bullshit, and you know how I thrive on it.

And I hate him and love him and curse him and feel sorry for him, all at the same time.

I think I'm a bit in love with these girls. They make me feel giddy. Like I haven't a care in the world. Like I'm fearless.

At times it's like sadness has planted itself on her face, refusing to leave, an overwhelming sadness, and sometimes I see despair there, too.

The silence accentuates the beauty of him. The beauty of this first boy of theirs.