The Whale Rider Quotes

“He loved them deeply, but sometimes love becomes a power game between the ambitions that parents have for their children and the ambitions that children have for themselves.”
― Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider

“Man might carve his mark on the earth but unless he's vigilant, Nature will take it all back.”
― Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider

“Sometimes life has a habit of flooding over you and rushing you along in its overwhelming tide.”
― Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider

“Der Mensch mag sein moko (Tätowierung) in die Erde tätowieren, aber sobald seine Wachsamkeit nachlässt, nimmt die Natur sich zurück, was er sich angeeignet hatte, um seine Eitelkeit zu befriedigen.”
― Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider

“Girls can do anything these days.”
― Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider

“Even the good guys,' she said, 'can't win all the time.”
― Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider

“... the love which Kahu received from Koro Apirana was the sort that dropped off the edge of the table, like breadcrumbs after everybody else has had a big meal.”
― Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider

“Watching, the ancient bull whale was swept up in memories of his own birthing. His mother had been savaged by sharks three months later; crying over her in the shallows of Hawaiki, he had been succoured by the golden human who became his master. The human had heard the young whale’s distress and had come into the sea, playing a flute. The sound was plangent and sad as he tried to communicate his oneness with the young whale’s mourning. Quite without the musician knowing it, the melodic patterns of the flute’s phrases imitated the whalesong of comfort. The young whale drew nearer to the human, who cradled him and pressed noses with the orphan in greeting. When the herd travelled onward, the young whale remained and grew under the tutelage of his master. The bull whale had become handsome and virile, and he had loved his master. In the early days his master would play the flute and the whale would come to the call. Even in his lumbering years of age the whale would remember his adolescence and his master; at such moments he would send long, undulating songs of mourning through the lambent water. The elderly females would swim to him hastily, for they loved him, and gently in the dappled warmth they would minister to him. In a welter of sonics, the ancient bull whale would communicate his nostalgia. And then, in the echoing water, he would hear his master’s flute. Straight away the whale would cease his feeding and try to leap out of the sea, as he used to when he was younger and able to speed toward his master. As the years had burgeoned the happiness of those days was like a siren call to the ancient bull whale. But his elderly females were fearful; for them, that rhapsody of adolescence, that song of the flute, seemed only to signify that their leader was turning his thoughts to the dangerous islands to the south-west.”
― Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider

“... sometimes love becomes a power game between ambitions that parents have for their children and the ambitions that children have for themselves.”
― Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider

“Is it natural or supernatural?' 'It is supernatural', a second voice said. Koro Apirana put up his hands to stop the debate. 'No', he said, 'it is both', he thundered, 'and if we have forgotten the communion then we have ceased to be Maori”
― Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider

“This is the last spear. It is the seed of Paikea and we must return it to the land.”
― Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider

“« Man might carve his identification mark on the earth but, once he ceases to be vigilant, Nature will take back what man had once achieved to please his vanity. »”
― Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider