Quotes from Paula McLain

The general and his beautiful wife

In the center of the road, I saw a heavy black sewing machine on its side, as if it had crawled out onto the street to die.

had forged her myself, out of brokenness, learning to love wildness instead of fearing it. To thrive on the exhilaration of the hunt, charging headlong into the world even—or especially—when it hurt to do it.

What was more exciting than that? I could love him like crazy and work very hard to understand and support him, but I couldn't be fresh eyes and a fresh smile after five years. I couldn't be new.

Swahili phrase he'd challenged me with years before, "A new thing is good, though it be a sore place.

what I'd really like to know is how it feels to be on my own. Not someone's daughter or wife, I mean…but my own person." "Oh." It seemed I'd surprised him. "There isn't a lot of that kind of thinking around here." "Of course there is," I told him, trying to draw a smile. "It's just usually a man who's doing it.

Lower your voice," he warned, but I'd had enough. As he reached for my arm again, I wrenched myself free and nearly flattened Boy Long in the process. I hadn't even seen him. Glancing between Jock and me quickly, gauging the situation, Boy said, "Is everything all right

The Dadaist movement was born from the despair over the egregious death and destruction of World War I and the zealous nationalism that led to it. The Dadaists' goal, according to an early manifesto, was to "remind the world that there are people of independent minds—beyond war and nationalism—who live for different ideals." After

Your wife happens to work for me, so I'd say it is." I was sure Jock was going to lunge for Boy. He was much the taller and broader man and could have wrecked Boy without trying—but some tide inside him turned, like a switch going off, and he thought better of it for the moment. "You should be careful, Beryl," he said icily, without taking his eyes from Boy's face. Then he stormed away.

I never thought I'd get married," I told Boy as he poured for us. Scotch spilled into the squat glasses with reassuring lapping noises. "I should have left well enough alone." "You don't need to explain.

He shook his head. "I see you trying to be tough skinned, but that makes sense. As a woman you'll have to work twice as hard for everything. I'm not sure I could do it." He lit a cigarette and drew on it, the end flaring red in the dark. When he released the held smoke, he looked at me. "I think you're rather brave, actually." Was

I needed peace just as much as he did, and to believe in the value of my work again. I wanted to run far away until the dark voices in my head quieted. But his needs upstaged mine.

toughness isn't the same as strength

At Equator Ranch a decade before, his debut lambing had turned out only six surviving animals of four thousand ewes. Undaunted, he had burned through more of his inheritance (eighty thousand pounds, some claimed), replaced his stock, learned his hard lessons, and was now the most successful large-scale rancher in all of Kenya. Not

Her absence was still so loud and so heavy, I ached with it, feeling hollow and lost. I didn't know how to forget my mother any more than my father knew how he might comfort me.

I felt a sense of anticipation of being on the verge of something interesting.

Was my happiness so completely tied to him now that I could only feel like myself when he was near? I had no idea.

That's the saddest piece as I see it, and have over and over. How some victims don't have even a whisper of no inside them. Because they don't believe the life they have is theirs to save. (seven) All the way to the village, I feel like a shaken-up snow globe, sharp flecks of memory colliding head on.

We stood there, locked and lovely as statues in a garden.

us, trailed by Cockie Birkbeck and a slight, dark-haired fellow who wasn't a bit like Bror Blixen. He turned out to be her husband, Ben. If

I've never been able to have any distance from these victims. The kids I'm trying to help. My cases just swallow everything. That's how the accident happened." I lean against the table with my elbows. Everything inside me feels so heavy I wonder if I can go on. If I can ever again hold myself upright. "I miss Sarah so much.

kama Simba, sisi Askari wote ni hodari. Fierce like the lion are we, soldiers all are brave.

We can only go the limits of ourselves-I've learned that if nothing else. Anything more and we give too much away. Then we're not good for anyone.

When we'd settled out of earshot, she said, "Sorry if Blix and I scared you away last night. It's not often we're alone. Being married to other people will do that.