Linna > Linna's Quotes

“Scatter?' Tate said. 'Why? We stay here. Why go anywhere else?'
'Because we'll never know how great this place is until we leave it,' Narnie said.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“Right now I'd like all my troubles to stand in front of me in a straight line, and one by one I'd give each a black eye. ”
― Shannon Hale, The Goose Girl

“A home to come back to every day of their lives.
Where they would all belong or long to be.
A place on the Jellicoe Road.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“Dear Complete and Utter Stranger,
The first thing that I have to say is that I hate oatmeal. I really hate it. And you know what? If you like oatmeal at all? I mean even the tiniest bit? I mean, say you were lost in the Himalayas, right, and you hadn't eaten anything except a Mars Bar for about seven years, right, and you're really cold and your fingers are all dropping off, right, and you look behind this rock, and there's this bowl of oatmeal?
Say you would even think about eating the oatmeal?
Well, JUST DON'T BOTHER WRITING TO ME, OKAY?”
― Jaclyn Moriarty, Feeling Sorry for Celia

“He took my hand, made me stand on the branch and asked, "What can you see from here?"
"Nothing" I said,
"Know what I can see? From this distance everything is so bloody perfect".”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“Its important to know stories. I felt the earth shift to make a place for you when you were born, and I came to tell you stories while you are young. And like me, you were born with a word on your tongue.”
― Shannon Hale, The Goose Girl

“It's like being in love, discovering your best friend.”
― Elizabeth Wein, Code Name Verity

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

“...all things speak, in their way, don't they?”
― Shannon Hale, The Goose Girl

“As I walk back to the school on my own, I realise I'm crying. So I go back to the stories I've read about the five and I try to make sense of their lives because in making sense of theirs, I may understand mine.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“3:12 pm
Secretly, I admit, I find many of my classmates annoying. I've often thought to myself, 'Good grief, these people are five-year-olds. Why must I spend my days among them?' But have I ever said such things aloud? No. I have been nothing but generous to them, and kept these thoughts to myself.
And how have they repaid me? Have they been grateful or kind? Ho NO!”
― Jaclyn Moriarty, The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie

“Everyone is so obsessed with themselves nowadays that they have no time for me.”
― Louise Rennison, Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants

“Dad has brought me a cup of tea in bed this morning! I said, 'Vati, why are you waking me up in the middle of the night? Are you on fire?”
― Louise Rennison, Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants

“I am exhausted by trying to get along with the Lord.”
― Louise Rennison, Away Laughing on a Fast Camel

“Everyone is so bloody keen on me thinking all of a sudden. It's not what I do.”
― Louise Rennison, Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?

“I think all of us are always five years old in the presence and absence of our parents.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“Well, the thing is, I don't think Indians are nomadic anymore. Most indians anyway.'

No, we're not,' I said

I'm not nomadic,' Rowdy said. 'Hardly anybody on this rez is nomadic. Except for you. You're the nomadic one.'

Whatever.'

No. I'm serious. I always knew you were going to leave. I always knew you were going to leave us behind and travel the world. I had this dream about you a few months ago. You were standing on the Great Wall of China. You looked happy. And I was happy for you.'

Rowdy didn't cry. But I did.

You're an old-time nomad,' Rowdy said. 'You're going to keep moving all over the world in search of food and water and grazing land. That's pretty cool.'

I could barely talk.

Thank you,' I said.

Yeah,' Rowdy said. 'Just make sure you send me postcards, you asshole.'

From everywhere,' I said.

I would always love Rowdy. And I would always miss him, too. Just as I would always love and miss my grandmother, my big sister, and Eugene.

Just as I would always love and miss my reservation and my tribe.

I hoped and prayed that they would someday forgive me for leaving them.

I hoped and prayed that I would someday forgive myself for leaving them.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both. (Death)”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“I'm the sheen on water, Rin thought. I'm a looking glass. I'm not real.”
― Shannon Hale, Forest Born

“Step follows step,
Hope follows Courage,
Set your face towards danger,
Set your heart on victory.”
― Gail Carson Levine, The Two Princesses of Bamarre

“There's nothing wrong with reading a book you love over and over. When you do, the words get inside you, become a part of you, in a way that words in a book you've read only once can't.”
― Gail Carson Levine, Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly

“That's funny, you're funny. I like you, I'm quite taken by you.”
― Gail Carson Levine, Ella Enchanted

“There are so many moments to remember and sometimes I think that maybe we're not really people at all. Maybe moments are what we are.... Sometimes I just survive. But sometimes I stand on the rooftop of my existence, arms stretched out, begging for more.”
― Markus Zusak, Getting the Girl

“Maybe you can afford to wait. Maybe for you there's a tomorrow. Maybe for you there's one thousand tomorrows, or three thousand, or ten, so much time you can bathe in it, roll around it, let it slide like coins through you fingers. So much time you can waste it.
But for some of us there's only today. And the truth is, you never really know.”
― Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall

“I've never really thought about it before, but it's a miracle how many kinds of light there are in the world, how many skies: the pale brightness of spring, when it feels like the hole world's blushing; the lush, bright boldness of a July noon; purple storm skies and a green queasiness just before lightning strikes and crazy multicolored sunsets that look like someone's acid trip.”
― Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall

“We stand there for a moment, looking at each other, and in that instant I feel our connection so strongly it's as though it achieves physical existence, becomes a hand all around us, cupping us together, protecting us. This is what people are always talking about when they talk about god: this feeling, of being held and understood and protected. feeling this way seems about as close to saying a prayer as you could get...”
― Lauren Oliver, Delirium

“Not a word passes between us, not because we have nothing to say, but because we don't have to say anything”
― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner