The Sirens Quotes

“Capture. It's the perfect word, isn't it? You paint someone and it's like you own them, like you've taken their soul from their body and put it right there on the canvas.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens: A Novel

“But then he heard something--- a note purer than birdsong, softer than morning dew. He turned. It was then that he saw the woman: she sat on a rock near the shore, singing just for him. Like she'd been waiting. The rising sun set her hair alight, her skin glittered with wet. Her eyes were round and dark as a seal's; her hands soft and warm as summer air---”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“And perhaps something inside her had cracked. All her life, she'd taken for granted that doing the right thing - being conscientious and kind and considerate - would be rewarded; that official procedures and processes could be relied upon. That there would always be a number to call, a person to report to, an answer to every question. That facts would always, inevitably, prevail.

But she'd been wrong. When she sought help through the proper channels, the procedures, no one gave her a gold star or thanked her for asking nicely. Instead, they wanted her to keep being nice, to put Ben's feelings - his reputation, his future - above her own. They wanted her to go away.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“Most people just want an easy life. It’s unsettling when someone starts pulling apart the stories we’ve stitched together, the things we tell ourselves for comfort.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“I called you Lucy. I wanted you to have the sea in your name.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“The dreams had returned, lifting her hopes, but when she was awake she heard nothing, only the rush and roar of the sea.
And so she decided to paint them, the women. As if to let them know that she was there. That she was ready. It would be the opposite of an exorcism. A summoning.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“The rash on her legs is peeling, coming off her in great pale strips, like the discarded skin of a snake. Below it, the flesh isn't pink and raw, or dotted with blood. Instead it glimmers, changing color with the light of the storm. Green then blue, then the pinkish white of mother-of-pearl. Iridescent as scales.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“It was the water that protected me. It's the water that makes us strong.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“I was looking for it," Eliza said. "For the tír fo thuinn. The land beneath the waves."
As if she might find Mam there, like the merrow from her childish story.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“She had asked Lucy to make a choice. But sometimes, there is no choice. There is only love.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“Though, she recalls now, there had been a time in childhood when she often dreamed of water. She doesn't remember much. A sun-dappled surface far above her head. A feeling that she was drowning, but somehow safe, that a liquid membrane protected her from the outside world.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“When she sought help through the proper channels, the procedures, no one gave her a gold star or thanked her for asking nicely. Instead, they wanted her to keep being nice, to put Ben’s feelings—his reputation, his future—above her own. They wanted her to go away.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“When he'd spoken of good and evil, of righteousness and sin, he'd made it sound easy to tell the difference between the two. As clear as sorting flax stalks from their seeds. But where did that leave Aoife, who had killed her husband to save her own life?”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“And yes, sometimes, people look away from inconvenient facts--just like the student welfare officer did when Lucy told her what happened with Ben. Most people just want an easy life. It's unsettling when someone starts pulling apart the stories we've stitched together, the things we tell ourselves for comfort.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“Actually,” she’d said, the words ferric on her tongue, “it isn’t.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“Lucy thinks, but doesn’t say, how intertwined those things are. Fear and desire. How one can become the other so easily.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“The present is nothing more than a tide, drawing away from her.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“Like any true crime devotee worth her stripes, she’s familiar with vigilante killers. The most famous is Pedro Rodrigues Filho, who was apparently the inspiration for Dexter.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“The sea gives, but it also takes.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“She waits for him to continue, her confidence returning. She’s good at this, navigating the terrain of a conversation. Knowing when to push, when to ease off. People like to reveal themselves to Lucy. Girls with drunk glittering eyes at house parties, whispering about the boys they want, the lies they’ve told. If you create a silence, people want to fill it.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“Nor did she know about the Female Register—the document created by Reverend Samuel Marsden,”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“The First Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, had thrived on the land for millennia before the arrival of those ships. It is estimated that over 250 languages—reflecting distinct nations with distinct cultures—were spoken in Australia prior to 1788. British invasion was devastating for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“The Ocean has its silent caves ––NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, “THE OCEAN”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“When Robert drew a human face he felt as if he'd pinned a butterfly for study. As if he'd taken something that flickered with life and beauty and killed it.
He would not do that to her.
And so instead he decided to draw something else to remind him, secretly, of her. Something that recalled the lustrous spread of her fins, the quivering spines. Something that was beautiful and vicious all at once.
A lionfish.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“In the water, Lucy feels herself bloom.
Her throat opens and she is breathing: she can feel the water nourish her, the sweet sting of the salt. She stretches out her hands in front of her, marveling at the webbed flesh. Her blood beats like a drum. She kicks her legs, feels the power in them, the beauty.
Ahead of her, Jess moves with the tide, her body at one with the sea, her hair a dark, drifting halo. Lucy sees the dance of the coral, throbbing pink and bright in time with the current. The silver dart of fish, the elegant shadow of a stingray.
Above, she knows, the storm rages: ashore, trees bend and sway, the leaves crackle with lightning. The wind picks up the sand in great billows, the waves white.
But here, all is peaceful, time slowed to the space between her heartbeats.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“The reef reminded Mary of the forest in spring, teeming with color and movement. Bristles of pink and red coral moved gently with the current. Fish shimmered past. A dark shadow lifted itself from the seabed and floated away.
She had never seen so much beauty. Her eyes ached with looking and yet she hardly dared blink. It was as if, for all these years, she had been living with a great thirst, and at last was able to slake it.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“She ached for a glimpse of the coast, a blue slice of sea, even though they had to be miles and miles away, still.
It was as if someone had cast an invisible wire across the land, had caught her between the ribs and pulled.
The sea was in her veins, calling loud as a song.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“There was the long-buried smell of home--- not the smell of the cottage in Armagh, with the hearth that she had yet to sweep and the stain of poitín in the air. Instead there was the briny tang of the sea, the sweet rot of fish guts. Her mother's scent, sun-baked sand and the gritty insides of shells.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“Voices. Women's voices, like in the old ghost stories. But they weren't screaming, crying as they drowned--- they were singing. This beautiful, lilting music--- I couldn't make out the words but I remember it sounded almost like a folk song. It comforted me, made me feel safe, somehow.
It was different for Danny. His whole body froze. I could smell the fear coming off him. But there was something else, too. A kind of... desire."
Lucy thinks, but doesn't say, how intertwined those things are. Fear and desire. How one can become the other so easily. All it takes is the tightening of a hand on your wrist, your throat.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens

“Lucy remembers seeing the Odyssey among the books heaped on Jess's dining room table, and thinks of Charybdis and Scylla, female nymphs who became monsters of the sea. The sirens, luring sailors to their deaths.”
― Emilia Hart, The Sirens