Grania Quotes

“Let me tell you something about women, Tigernan,” Ruari offered, stretching his legs and holding up his empty ale bowl to attract the innkeeper’s attention. “I’ve given a bit of thought to them, having lived more years than you. Women are something a man requires, as necessary as air to breathe and ale to drink. I cannot boast of understanding them, mind you, but I suspect nature designed them for a specific purpose, and it would be a mistake to try to change them. “Women render men an invaluable service that may not at first be apparent. They are born to be responsible, to caretake. It is in them to probe their men as they would examine an old cloak, looking for holes that could let the wind through. Women understand survival better than we do, I think. They will nag and probe and provoke until they find a lowered defense, even the smallest hole, then they poke their fingers through and shout, ‘Aha!’ “In this way they force their men to keep their cloaks mended and their weapons in repair, and ultimately this helps them survive. With a woman treading on his heels a man must stay alert and in the proper frame of mind to go out and slay dragons. Never provoke a quarrel with a man who has just had his flaws pointed out to him by some woman.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas

“Feet, she thought. Sea legs. When you pass the last spit of land and commit to the ocean, you are taking a step into the infinite and might set your foot down anywhere.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas

“Everything hurts, Fergal. All the time. Start with that and life won't be able to disappoint you.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas

“I walk on the surface of a shifting bog. I have to grab for whatever I can find that is solid.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas

“Grace O'Malley is a crafty devil.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas

“Io non ci ho mai tenuto a diventare un capo" rispose Grania. "Sono sempre andata dove volevo andare, e quando mi guardavo indietro vedevo che gli altri mi stavano seguendo.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas

“I have done what mourning I had to do already; I have no desire to give over more days of my life to satisfy conventions that are not mine. I am of the old religion, Grania; we do not believe in death. And so we do not allow it to triumph over life and twist and torture the living. There is...lifework to be done here.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas

“The power that created me would not have given me such a capacity for feeling pleasure if I weren't meant to use it, Evleen whispered to the man who sat rapt beneath her touch. Your religion wants dominion over our bodies because sex is the one ecstasy they can't control, and they are threatened by any rapture other than that they offer.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas

“I want something for myself, Grania was thinking, staring at her folded and clenched hands.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas