Quotes from Louise Penny

The two women would 'put up' the preserves over a couple of days and invariably Marthe would ask, 'When does a cucumber become a pickle?' At first he'd tried to answer that question as though she genuinely wanted to know. But over the years he realised there was no answer. At what point does change happen? Sometimes it's sudden. The 'ah ha' moments in our lives, when we suddenly see. But often it's a gradual change, an evolution.

How isolating that must be, she thought. But we all seek solace somewhere. Some in friendships and family and beliefs. Some in drugs, in a bottle, in food or gambling or good deeds. And some in casual sex. It masqueraded as human contact, but was closer to loathing than liking. And certainly wasn't love. On

You're not quite as ignorant as you pretend, Chief Inspector." "Oh, my ignorance knows no bounds, Father.

Holy horrible taste, Batman

the police were not the evil ones. The snake was already here.

He sounded more confident than he really was. But Chief Superintendent Gamache understood that a leader could not afford to reveal his own emotions. He couldn't demand courage in others while quaking in fear himself.

Non. He said, 'Be very, very careful who you let into your life. And learn to make peace with whatever happens. You can't erase the past. It's trapped in there with you. But you can make peace with it. If you don't,

The senior council couldn't allow me to disobey orders and get away with it. This is their punishment. And it's right. Just as what I did was right.

And now here is my secret, a very simple secret. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. Armand

If love was compass enough," said Armand quietly, "there would be no missing children.

And I would never, ever mock the power of love. But it can also distort. Slip over into desperation and delusion.

The drug smuggling today had, as its godparents, the bootleggers nearly a hundred years ago. The syndicates, the systems, the psyches were created back then.

My favorite quote from Thoreau is also from Walden," said Gamache. "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

These are dangerous times and dangerous people. We need all the help we can get.

A populist feeding anger and fear is more likely to get elected.

She'd taught him that order was freedom. To live in chaos was to live in a prison. Order freed the mind for other things.

He took her in his arms and kissed her, feeling her soft body beneath his coat. They'd both swelled since they'd first met. There was no way either would get into their wedding clothes. But they'd grown in other ways as well, and Gamache figured it was a good deal. If life meant growth in all directions, it was fine with him.

I sometimes think we're a rowboat society." "A what?" asked Jean. "A rowboat. It's why we do things like that." He jerked his head toward the window and the dot on the river. "It's why Québec is so perfectly preserved. It's why we're all so fascinated with history. We're in a rowboat. We move forward, but we're always looking back.

We long to find home. After years and years of making war on everyone around us, on ourselves, we just want peace.' 'And

Pierre sipped, and nodded. It was relaxing being around Chef Véronique, though he knew she scared the crap out of the new employees. She was huge and beefy, her face like a pumpkin and her voice like a root vegetable. And she had knives. Lots of them. And cleavers and cast-iron pans.

Le Bon Marché was the oldest, the first, store of its kind in Paris. Practically in the world. Opened in 1852, it predated Selfridges in London by more than half a century. In fact, the Hôtel Lutetia was built by the owner of Le Bon Marché, primarily to give his customers someplace to stay while spending money in his remarkable store.

Everyone we meet, every word we speak, every action taken or not taken lives in our longhouse. With us. Always. Never to be expelled or locked away.

And she now knew the miracle wasn't the banana, it was the hand that offered the banana.

The trial is about facts, but feelings are also a fact.