Melina Marchetta > Quotes

“It's funny how you can forget everything except people loving you. Maybe that's why humans find it so hard getting over love affairs. It's not the pain they're getting over, it's the love.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“I can't believe I said it out loud. The truth doesn't set you free, you know. It makes you feel awkward and embarrassed and defenseless and red in the face and horrified and petrified and vulnerable. But free? I don't feel free. I feel like shit.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“What do you want from me?" he asks.
What I want from every person in my life, I want to tell him.
More.”
― Melina Marchetta, Jellicoe Road

“He stops and looks at me. 'I'm here because of you. You're my priority. Your happiness, in some fucked way, is tuned in to mine. Get that through your thick skull. Would I like it any other way? Hell, yes, but I don't think that will be happening in my lifetime.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“Hold my hand because I might disappear.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“When I turn around, he cups my face in his hands and he kisses me so deeply that I don't know who is breathing for who, but his mouth and tongue taste like warm honey. I don't know how long it lasts, but when I let go of him, I miss it already.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“Be prepared for the worst, my love, for it lives next door to the best.”
― Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock

“My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die.

I counted.

It happened on the Jellicoe Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La. We were going to the ocean, hundreds of miles away, because I wanted to see the ocean and my father said that it was about time the four of us made that journey. I remember asking, 'What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?' and my father said, 'Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand,' and that was the last thing he ever said.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“Is a person worth more because they have someone to grieve for them?”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“If you weren't driving, I'd kiss you senseless," I tell him.
He swerves to the side of the road and stops the car abruptly.
"Not driving any more.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“Because being part of him isn't just anything. It's kind of everything.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“Comfort zones are overrated. They make you lazy.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“But grief makes a monster out of us sometimes . . . and sometimes you say and do things to the people you love that you can't forgive yourself for.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“Maybe she'd always been there. Maybe strangers enter your heart first and then you spent the rest of your life searching for them. ”
― Melina Marchetta, The Piper's Son

“It's a weird smile, but it reaches his eyes and I bottle it. And I put it in my ammo pack that's kept right next to my soul and Justine's spirit and Siobhan's hope and Tara's passions. Because if I'm going to wake up one morning and not be able to get out of bed, I'm going to need everything I've got to fight this disease that could be sleeping inside of me.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“From this distance everything is so bloody perfect.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“Never,' he tells me in a tone full of ice, 'underestimate who or what I care for.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“How can you just forget a person completely until the moment you see his face again?”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“Guess what?' Fitz said.
'I don't know,' Jude said. 'What? Narnie smiled?' He glanced at her for the first time.
'When you guys see a Narnie smile, it's like a revalation,' Webb said, gathering her towards him.
Jude stopped in front of her and, with both hands cupping her face, tried to make a smile. Narnie flinched.
'Leave her alone,' Tate said.
'I need a revelation,' Jude said. 'And you're the only one that can give me one, Narns.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“This is the best night of my life," Raffy says, crying.
"Raffy, half our House has burnt down," I say wearily. "We don't have a kitchen."
"Why do you always have to be so pessimistic?" she asks. "We can double up in our rooms and have a barbecue every night like the Cadets."
Silently I vow to keep Raffy around for the rest of my life.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“He is the most beautiful creature I have ever seen and it's not about his face, but the life force I can see in him. It's the smile and the pure promise of everything he has to offer. Like he's saying, 'Here I am world, are you ready for so much passion and beauty and goodness and love and every other word that should be in the dictionary under the word life?' Except this boy is dead, and the unnaturalness of it makes me want to pull my hair out with Tate and Narnie and Fitz and Jude's grief all combined. It makes me want to yell at the God that I wish I didn't believe in. For hogging him all to himself. I want to say, 'You greedy God. Give him back. I needed him here.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“These people have history and I crave history. I crave someone knowing me so well that they can tell what I'm thinking. Jonah Griggs takes my hand under the table and links my fingers with his and I know that I would sacrifice almost anything just to keep this state of mind, for the rest of the week at least.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“When it was over, she gathered him in her arms. And told him the terrible irony of her life.
That she had wanted to be dead all those years while her brother had been alive. That had been her sin.
And this was her penance.
Wanting to live when everyone else seemed dead.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“Sir Topher finally looked up. “Because any hope beyond that, my boy, would be too much. I feared we would drown in it.”
"Then I choose to drown,” Finnikin said. “In hope. Rather than float into nothing.”
― Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock

“A piece of me is gone," she told me once while we were bra shopping. "I think we're made up of all these different pieces and every time someone goes, you're left with less of yourself.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“What's with what you're wearing?" Griggs asks while we stand outside waiting for the others.
"It's pretty hideous, isn't it?" I say.
"Don't force me to look at it," he says. "It's see-through."

That kills conversation for a couple of seconds.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“This hand says you spend the rest of your life with me," he said, holding out his left hand, "and this one says I spend the rest of my life with you. Choose."

She bit her lip, tears welling in her eyes. She took both of his hands in hers and he shuddered. "I will die protecting you," he says.

There was a look of dismay on her face. "Just like a man of this kingdom, Finnikin. Talking of death, yours or mine, is not a good way to begin a-"

Isaboe gave a small gasp when he leaned forward, his lips an inch away from hers. "I will die for you," he whispered.

She cupped his face in her hands. "But promise me you'll live first. Because nothing we are about to do is going to be easy and I need you by my side.”
― Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock

“People with lost personalities will suffer a great deal more than those with lost virginities.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“I'm very disturbed to find out that the leader of the Townies has a soul and I'm beginning to develop a bit of a crush on him.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“And life goes on, which seems kind of strange and cruel when you're watching someone die.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“I’m scared I’m going to spend the rest of my life in a state of yearning, regardless of where I am.”
― Melina Marchetta, The Piper's Son

“My body becomes a raft and there's this part of me that wants just literally to go with the flow. To close my eyes and let it take me. But I know sooner or later I will have to get out, that I need to feel the earth beneath my feet, between my toes - the splinters, the bindi-eyes, the burning sensation of hot dirt, the sting of cuts, the twigs, the bites, the heat, the discomfort, the everything. I need desperately to feel it all, so when something wonderful happens, the contrast will be so massive that I will bottle the impact and keep it for the rest of my life.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“No," I say, looking up at Griggs. "It's actually because my heart belongs to someone else." And if I could bottle the look on his face, I'd keep it by my bedside for the rest of my life.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“I don't want to let go, because tonight I'm not looking for anything more than being part of him. Because being part of him isn't just anything. It's kind of everything.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“Do something that scares you everyday.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“Whatever is now covered up will be uncovered and every secret will be made known.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“Because without our language, we have lost ourselves. Who are we without our words?”
― Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock

“I used to tell your mother she looked like Sophia Lauren." He looks at me, frowning, and then it registers.
"Oh God, some guy's using that line on you, isn't he?"
"Not just 'some guy'." I tell him. "The guy.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“Do you think people have noticed that I'm around?"
"I notice when you're not. Does that count?”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“If I want more, I need to go and get it, demand it, take hold of it with all my might, and do the best I can with it.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“You go shake your foundations, Will. I think it's about time I saved myself.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“Don't believe in God. Love the world just the way it is. ”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“Girls under the age of fourteen are the most frightening creatures I have ever come across. - Jonah Griggs”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“And then their voices stopped and their souls stood still and they ceased being who they had been. Because who they were had always been determined by him.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“Santangelo is irritated. "We're not suppose to be collaborating. It's supposed to be a war and you're supposed to stick to the boundaries."
"We've seen you in your jocks," she reminds him. "Taylor and Griggs have pashed. You've broken into your father's police station for us. Don't you think the war has lost a bit of its tension?”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“somehow, even in the worst of times, the tiniest fragments of good survive. It was the grip in which one held those fragments that counted.”
― Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock

“Tell me about the farm," she pleaded as drops of blood began to appear on her hand.
"The farm?"
"The farm that Finnikin the peasant would have lived on with his bride."
"Evanjalin. That was her name. Did I mention that?"
She laughed through a sob. "No, you didn't."
"They would plant rows upon rows of wheat and barley, and each night they would sit under the stars to admire what they owned. Oh, and they would argue. She believes the money made would be better spent on a horse, and he believes they need a new barn. But then later they would forget all their anger and he would hold her fiercely and never let her go."
"And he'd place marigolds in her hair?" she asked.
He clasped her hands against his and watched her blood seep through the lines of his skin. "And he would love her until the day he died," he said.”
― Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock

“Ned?' he says, after a while. 'Oi, Ned?'
'What?'
'If someone says to you that the guy they're going out with doesn't have to prove how smart he is, what's your response?'
'That he's dumb.'
'And if he has a sixpack?'
'Dumb jock.'
'Not too intense.'
'Dumb jock with no personality.'
'And they see eye to eye?'
Ned pauses. 'With the spitfire from Dili?'
'Same,' Tom corrects.
Ned holds up a hand to where Tara would reach him in height.
'Dumb jock with no personality and short-man syndrome.'
'Thanks, Ned.'
'Anytime.”
― Melina Marchetta, The Piper's Son

“I just stare at him. I want to ask him a thousand questions, but I can tell he doesn't want to be asked.
"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 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."
We laugh for a moment and begin walking again.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“There are worse things than a lie and there are better things than the truth!”
― Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock