The Outlandish Companion Quotes

“I didn't want to tell the story of what makes two people come together, although that's a theme of great power and universality. I wanted to find out what it takes for two people to stay together for fifty years -- or more. I wanted to tell not the story of courtship, but the story of marriage.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Outlandish Companion

“But the future reaches out to us, as does the past, and all times are the present.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Outlandish Companion

“I had come to the conclusion - based on experience - that the only real way of learning to write a novel was probably to write a novel.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Outlandish Companion

“people so often seemed not only willing but eager to believe the worst—and the worse, the better.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“Mm. You’d forgotten how to say anything except ‘I love you,’ but you said that a lot.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“What Jack Randall had done to him had sunk into his soul as surely as the flails of the lash had sunk in his back, and had left scars every bit as permanent. I”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“dropped peacefully into sleep, to dream of kilted Highland men, and the sound of soft-spoken Scots, burring round a fire like the sound of bees in the heather.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“My parents would take my sister and me out for dinner now and then, and while waiting for the food to be served, would point out the oldest, most harried looking waitress in the place, saying sternly, “Be sure you get a good education, so you don’t have to do that when you’re fifty!”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Outlandish Companion: The First Companion to the Outlander series, covering Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, and Drums of Autumn

“Though I could wish your own limits went a bit further.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“I knew an old lady in the Highlands once, who said the lines in your hand don’t predict your life; they reflect it.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“For there’s a part of me would like no better than to take you and the bairn and go far away, to spend the rest of my life working the fields and the beasts, to come in in the evenings and lie beside ye, quiet through the night.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“Now, I am not basically a nice person. I _am_ snice, arrogant, and short-tempered. I try to overcome these things, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Outlandish Companion: Companion to Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, and Drums of Autumn

“I didn’t really expect him to answer, but he did. Tired and drained as we both were, it was as though we were suspended together in a place where neither time nor consequence existed; there was room for nothing but truth between us.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“liquid”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“Here an ancient oriel window opened glassless to the sky, and the light of the hunter’s moon washed us in silver. We lay clasped together, damp skins cooling in the winter air, waiting for our racing hearts to slow and breath to return to our heaving bodies.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“So”—he said authoritatively, holding up a finger to hush me—“if you have been deprived of your earlier life, perhaps it is only that God has seen fit to bless you with another, that may be richer and fuller.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“There was a feeling, not sudden, but complete, as though I had been given a small object to hold unseen in my hands. Precious as opal, smooth as jade, weighty as a river stone, more fragile than a bird’s egg. Infinitely still, live as the root of Creation. Not a gift, but a trust. Fiercely to cherish, softly to guard. The words spoke themselves and disappeared into the groined shadows of the roof. I”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“and the sort of kind, down-to-earth expression that invited confidence.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“The realization of Jamie’s imminent departure was deeply depressing; I suddenly realized just how much I looked forward to seeing him at dinner after the day’s work, how my heart would leap when I saw him unexpectedly at odd moments during the day, and how much I depended on his company and his solid, reassuring presence amid the complexities of life in the castle. And, to be perfectly honest, how much I liked the smooth, warm strength of him in my bed each night, and waking to his tousled, smiling kisses in the mornings. The prospect of his absence was bleak.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“When I decided that I should have a female character, I simply introduced her, knowing nothing about her other than the fact that she was an Englishwoman. ... Whereupon Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp promptly took over the story and began telling it herself. Being in no position to argue with her, I took the path of least resistance, and went along to see what would happen next.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Outlandish Companion

“recognized, with a fresh burst of rage, the impulse”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“My life is yours. And it’s yours to decide what we shall do, where we go next. To France, to Italy, even back to Scotland. My heart has been yours since first I saw ye, and you’ve held my soul and body between your two hands here, and kept them safe. We shall go as ye say.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“You mean to tell me that you married me out of love?” I demanded. He raised his eyebrows, struggling to draw in breath. “Have I not…just been…saying so?”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“Because I wanted you.” He turned from the window to face me. “More than I ever wanted anything in my life,” he added softly.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“Ye are Blood of my Blood, and Bone of my Bone. I give ye my Body, that we Two might be One. I give ye my Spirit, ’til our Life shall be Done.’ ”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“Ye need not be scairt of me,” he said softly. “Nor of anyone here, so long as I’m with ye.” He let go and turned to the fire.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“If it’s a formal interview, though, I usually feel obliged to explain that the implied notion that science and art are diametrically opposing poles of human endeavor is mistaken. Many people think that science is logical, rigid, and cold, while art is intuitive, flexible, and touchy-feely. In fact, both processes are simply two faces of the same coin. Intuition feeds logic and vice versa. Science without imagination is useless; art without structure is pointless. Both science and art ultimately rest on the same foundation: the ability to draw patterns out of chaos. It’s just that when you do science, you observe the chaos; when you do art, you get to define it.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Outlandish Companion: The First Companion to the Outlander series, covering Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, and Drums of Autumn

“She was entirely calm, no more than a conduit for the ancient savagery that men call motherhood, who mistake its tenderness for weakness.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“If I am to live as a man, I must have a mountain,” he said simply.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

“I’d lived long enough to realize that fear wasn’t usually fatal—”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn