The Woman Who Wouldn't Die Quotes

“There was a Lao proverb that called teachers the engineers of the soul”
― Colin Cotterill, The Woman Who Wouldn't Die

“Like you, I grew up in a remote animist village. But then I went to a strict Catholic education in France. I was perfectly content to accept the grand Shee Yee of the Otherworld and the Lord B, and Jesus and his mother as my spiritual icons as long as I didn't have to spend too long on my knees. I would have settled for a committee. I just wanted order. But once I started to see my own ghosts I understood what these religions were all about. They were clubs set up by people like me to stop themselves from going mad. You know what I really think happens? You die. You wait for your number. There's a bit of time to take care of unfinished business. And you pass on. And, as you don't come back, nobody actually knows what you pass on to. But that description has never been acceptable. People want an ending. They don't want to vanish into thin air. So these great religious gurus made some endings up. The more comfortable and happy your ending, the more members signed up and paid their fees. And the kings and emperors started to add rules and regulations to subjugate the commoners and keep them in line. As so they invented hell and told you if you coveted your neighbor's mule you wouldn't even get into the clubhouse at the end of it all.”
― Colin Cotterill, The Woman Who Wouldn't Die

“I don’t know. On my last junket I was caught in the middle of a massacre. The one before that I was tortured and left for dead. Joy and recreation seem to have escaped me somehow.”
― Colin Cotterill, The Woman Who Wouldn't Die

“I am an advisor to prime ministers and presidents – a man loved and admired by the masses. I deserve my house and, damn it, I should be allowed to decide what I do with it. If I so wish to cover it in ice cream and lick it, that is my prerogative.’ Mr”
― Colin Cotterill, The Woman Who Wouldn't Die

“Siri let out a silent puff of air. If he’d had a wife like this he would certainly have shot her long ago.”
― Colin Cotterill, The Woman Who Wouldn't Die

“He never tired of watching her breathe. Every night spent beside her was an honour.”
― Colin Cotterill, The Woman Who Wouldn't Die

“I am a seasoned field surgeon having survived some five hundred campaigns,’ said Siri. ‘I was educated in France and I speak three languages.’ ‘Four if you include double-Dutch,’ said Civilai.”
― Colin Cotterill, The Woman Who Wouldn't Die

“And so they resort to pantomime. Charades for the hard-of-channelling.”
― Colin Cotterill, The Woman Who Wouldn't Die

“Are you afraid?" Dtui asked her.

"No more than I was about being born," Bpoo replied. "It's all part of the natural equation. Ashes to ashes. It's just that when you leave, you have some say in your wardrobe.”
― Colin Cotterill, The Woman Who Wouldn't Die

“You're Dr. Siri," said the soldier. "You took a chunk of shrapnel out of my knee once."

"Well then."

"No invitation, no entry. Sorry."

"If I ran past you, do you think you could catch me?"

"Yes."

"Then the operation was a success."

"Yes.”
― Colin Cotterill, The Woman Who Wouldn't Die

“The least urgent souls on earth with a thousand obstacles and superstitions to interfere with the accomplishment of work.”
― Colin Cotterill, The Woman Who Wouldn't Die