quotes by Louise Penny

"Or - perhaps - I should just worry about my own behavior and let others be who they are."
— Louise Penny

"Not a spoon clinked against a mug, not a creamer was popped, peeled and opened, not a breath. It was as though something else had joined them then. As though silence had taken a seat."
— Louise Penny (The Brutal Telling)

"The leaves had fallen from the trees and lay crisp and crackling beneath his feet. Picking one up he marveled, not for the first time, at the perfection of nature where leaves were most beautiful at the very end of their lives."
— Louise Penny (The Brutal Telling)

"What haunted people even, perhaps especially, on their deathbed? What chased them, tortured them and brought some of them to their knees? And [he] thought he had the answer. Regret. Regret for things said, things done, and things not done. Regret for the people they might have been. And failed to be. "
— Louise Penny (The Brutal Telling)

"What are you afraid of?
I'm afraid of not recognizing Paradise."
— Louise Penny (The Brutal Telling)

"Better to accept the wretched truth than struggle, twisting to make a wish a reality."
— Louise Penny (The Brutal Telling)

"But there was no hiding from Conscience. Not in new homes and new cars. In travel. In meditation or frantic activity. In children, in good works. On tiptoes or bended knee. In a big career. Or a small cabin. It would find you. The past always did. Which was why... it was vital to be aware of actions in the present. Because the present became the past, and the past grew. And got up, and followed you. And found you... Who wouldn't be afraid of this?"
— Louise Penny (The Brutal Telling)