The Anatomy of Wings Quotes

“If we knew everything would change we would have turned back but we didn't know. Thats how things happen. Especially sunny days hide dark moments in their pockets.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“After the kiss some of it still sparkled in the air around her.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“Big secrets were catastrophic. However hard you try to hide them, they bob to the surface and you must go over them again and again. They are taken out so often they become worn smooth as a river stone. You have to carry them around you like a baby. The secret grows until you feel like you are a skin that covers it, a thin skin, easily split, ripe”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“This is because secrets are terrible things.
Even the simplest ones”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“Before everything happened I wished i had double voice box like a song bird so I could sing two songs at once, the way a bird can harmonize with itself. I wanted to sing crystal clear notes. I wanted to sing them one after anther in ascending order. And at the same time I wanted to let another fountain of notes descend from my heart.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“If i could have sung it would be a very sad song.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“I would be a wedge-tailed eagle. I would only live for the joy of flight. I would soar at great heights, on top of the wind. I would be above everything, over the little towns clinging to the highway. I would be a part of everything.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“A glimpse, a little piece of their story, flapping like ribbon in the wind.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“Everyone tiptoed backward and forward past the door and looked at her sadness like it was an exhibition. A jewel in its case.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“Sudden singing was the only type I really missed. When sudden singing happened it came out of the blue and made me feel so good that my toes curled up and I got goose bumps all over my body and tears in my eyes.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“The cicadas were singing a song.
It was a one-noted, one-worded; The words sounded like "please".
They were singing and singing and singing and the whole world was falling down.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“Our house was like sleeping beauties palace after the enchanted spell is cast”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“The tree seemed very sad to be involved in such a thing and it hung its dark head over them.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“The sun, sides bulging, squashed itself between two hills. It sent up a flare of golden light. The sky, patterned with a million tiny clouds like fish scales was illuminated.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“Everything that she saw glowing during the day seemed tarnished beside the light that was at the heart of the evening. the bleached color of things replaced by a beauty that stole into everything. the pale yellow leaves grew golden. The white gems opened up their hearts and shone.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“It was like a slap. I dont remember her being mean before that. It made Miranda smile. The smile that unlocked something in Beth like a key”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“After the lake everywhere Beth looked there was light. Dad, face bent over her, wore a halo. A tree was on fire with white cockatoos. The dam wall shone like a bride's skirt. The star-covered lake moved inside her. In the car our faces glowed. The sky pressed its bright face to the window.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“1. The wilder Beth grew, the bluer her eyes became, and the bluer her eyes became, the wilder she grew.
2. She chewed her nails. She chewed them down to the skin until they bled.
3. When she laughed she closed her eyes and tilted her head backward. She put one arm across her stomach.
4. She could melt Nanna's stony heart with one smile. After her heart was melted Nanna always said, 'What on earth will we do with you?'
5. She ran away often and when she returned we all tried to act as though she had never gone.
6. She felt keenly the pain of insects and then the pain of people.
7. She gave up dancing at thirteen.
8. Parts of her kept disappearing. Small pieces that she gave away.
9. Sometimes she drank methylated spirits with her wine, just a dash.
10. She wanted to save everything but couldn't even save herself.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“Up rose the scent of green-apple shampoo. Of river stones once the flood has gone. The taste of winter sky laced with sulfur fumes. A kiss beneath a white-hearted tree. A hot still day holding its breath.

We removed the contents one by one.

There were two blue plastic hair combs. A tough girl's black rubber-band bracelet. A newspaper advertisement for a secretarial school folded in half. A blond braid wrapped in gladwrap. A silver necklace with a half-a-broken-heart pendant. An address, written in a leftward-slanting hand, on a scrap of paper. Ballet shoes wrapped in laces.

From the box came the sound of bicycle tires humming on hot pavement. Of bare feet running through crackling grass. Of frantic fingers unstitching an embroidered flower. Of paper wings rising on a sudden wind. Of the lake breathing against the shore.

I didn't say anything. I kept very still.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“I'm really disappointed about how you've turned out," shouted Mum like Beth was a slightly burnt biscuit.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“It was only a little piece of knowledge but it felt as shiny and solid as a new twenty-cent piece in my hand to know i could find the thing that was wrong.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“When she stopped kissing him his hand went to her waist to pull her back. the sun beat down on us. The day quivered. The sky was as deep as the ocean. We breathed underwater.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“All those days had been removed, simply and precisely, whole weeks brimming with cloudless blue skies neatly severed and discarded. We needed Beth's name shouted not whispered.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings

“After the lake everywhere Beth looked there was light. Dad, face bent over her, wore a halo. A tree was on fire with white cockatoos. The dam wall shone like a bride's skirt. The star-covered lake moved inside her. In the car our faces glowed. The sky pressed its bright face to the window.

At home our mother noticed the stain on her shorts, and in the toilet even the blood on her underpants shone.

'Do not be afraid,' whispered Nanna at the toilet door.

She said the prayer for young girls who are menstruating.

'I'm not afraid,' said Beth.”
― Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings