The Nature of the Beast Quotes

“No, I’m fine. And yes, I mean that sort of FINE,” said Reine-Marie, making reference to the title of one of Ruth’s poetry books, where FINE stood for Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Egotistical.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“But they both knew that words were weapons too, and when fashioned into a story their power was almost limitless.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“I’m afraid it won’t stop, and all my bones will disappear and one day I’ll just dissolve. I won’t be able to stand up anymore, or move.” She looked into Clara’s eyes. Clung to Clara’s eyes. “Mostly I’m afraid that it won’t matter. Because I have nowhere to go, and nothing to do. No need of bones.” And Clara knew then that as great as her own grief was, nothing could compare to this hollow woman and her hollow home. There wasn’t just a wound where Laurent had once been. This was a vacuum, into which everything tumbled. A great gaping black hole that sucked all the light, all the matter, all that mattered, into it. Clara, who knew grief, was suddenly frightened herself. By the magnitude of this woman’s loss.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“Nature, she knew, abhorred a vacuum, and these people, faced with an information vacuum, had filled it with their fears.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“Where once his grandparents put up crucifixes and images of the benediction on their walls, he and Reine-Marie put up books on theirs. History books. Reference books. Biographies. Fiction, nonfiction. Stories lined the walls and both insulated them from the outside world and connected them to it.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“There’s a huge fucking missile launcher in our backyard and apparently the only thing between us and Armageddon is some guy who’s afraid of a duck.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“Maybe that’s what old men are for. To make decisions that no young man can.” He was watching Gamache closely. “Or should have to.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“The Chief had once told him about the behavior of gorillas when faced with an attack. They met it head on, staring down the enemy. But every now and then they’d reach out to touch the gorilla beside them. To make sure they were not alone. Keeping his eyes on the road, Jean-Guy reached out and touched Gamache’s shoulder.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“People instinctively let down their guard when they saw a limp, an illness, a flaw in someone else. Not out of compassion but because it made them feel superior. Stronger. Those people, Gamache knew, did not always last long. It was not a useful instinct.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“Next morning Jean-Guy Beauvoir was waiting by the car with two travel mugs of café au lait from the bistro and two chocolatines. “Just because we’re going to Mordor doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy ourselves on the way,” he said, opening the passenger-side door for Armand.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“FINE stood for Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Egotistical.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“Clara knew that grief took a terrible toll. It was paid at every birthday, every holiday, each Christmas. It was paid when glimpsing the familiar handwriting, or a hat, or a balled-up sock. Or hearing a creak that could have been, should have been, a footstep. Grief took its toll each morning, each evening, every noon hour as those who were left behind struggled forward.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“He read the familiar first lines of the book and felt the calm come over him, like a comforter.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“It was a perfect time of year, when late summer flowers were still blooming and the leaves were turning, and the grass was still green, but the nights were chilly and sweaters were out and fires were beginning to be lit. So that the hearths at night resembled the forests in the day, all giddy and bright and cheerful. Soon everyone would head back to the”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“Some people keep their darkness inside, and some hide their light. You, mon ami, almost certainly have a croissant in there.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“said Rosenblatt. “Even the name sounds slightly”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“When we remembered Zion.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“We sat down and wept,”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“The Chief had once told him about the behavior of gorillas when faced with an attack. They met it head on, staring down the enemy. But every now and then they’d reach out to touch the gorilla beside them. To make sure they were not alone.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“You’re a middle-aged man waiting out his days. Do you lie awake at night, wondering what’s next? Are your friends growing bored with you? Do your former colleagues tolerate you, but cluck behind your back? Is your wife losing respect for you, as you grip the bars and look at her through the prison of your days? Or have you dragged her into the cell with you?”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“sitting still was far more difficult, and frightening, than running around.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“You obviously know that art has power,” he said. “It can be freeing, but it can also be a weapon, especially when combined with something equally powerful, like war. Art’s been used to inspire all sorts of things. Public statues of brave soldiers. Paintings of heroic sacrifice. But it’s also been used to put the fear of God into enemies.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“One thing Gamache knew for sure. Little Frederick Lawson had not picked up his stick, pointed it, and slaughtered a village filled with old men, and women and children. So how did one become the other? How did a nine-year-old boy acting out heroics become a twenty-year-old man committing an atrocity?”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“You’re an artist,” said Reine-Marie. “Do you think a work should be judged by its creator? Or should it stand on its own?”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“Watching the man approach with a strong, determined step, Rosenblatt suspected Gamache was no more retired than he himself”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“one question. What do I really want to do? Not for my friends, not for my family. Not for perfect strangers. But for me. Finally. It was my turn, my time. And this is yours, Armand. Yours and Reine-Marie’s. What do you really want?”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“her eye”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“Встречу я твой взгляд и замру, обездвиженная и онемевшая, а земля под ногами расколется и рухнут небеса”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“I’m afraid it won’t stop, and all my bones will disappear and one day I’ll just dissolve. I won’t be able to stand up anymore, or move.” She looked into Clara’s eyes. Clung to Clara’s eyes. “Mostly I’m afraid that it won’t matter. Because I have nowhere to go, and nothing to do. No need of bones.”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast

“Clara knew that grief took a terrible toll. It was paid at every birthday, every holiday, each Christmas. It was paid when glimpsing the familiar handwriting, or a hat, or a balled-up sock. Or hearing a creak that could have been, should have been, a footstep. Grief took its toll each morning, each evening, every noon hour as those who were left behind struggled forward. Clara wasn’t sure”
― Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast