The Voyage Home Quotes

“You don’t always need hope; sometimes it helps just to have your despair recognized, and shared.”
― Pat Barker, The Voyage Home: A Novel

“If any man loves the tools of any trade, the gods have called him. I reckon that goes for women as well.”
― Pat Barker, The Voyage Home: A Novel

“Men begin and end their lives as helpless lumps of flesh in the hands of women, and all the years between—power, success, wealth, fame, even victory in war—are merely a doomed attempt at escape.”
― Pat Barker, The Voyage Home: A Novel

“There’ll always be people who label captive women “whores” because they lack the basic empathy to imagine what it’s like to have no say in what’s done to your body.”
― Pat Barker, The Voyage Home: A Novel

“Be the blossoming flower—and the snake beneath.”
― Pat Barker, The Voyage Home: A Novel

“Some men seem to think it’s impossible that a woman might prefer to sleep alone.”
― Pat Barker, The Voyage Home: A Novel

“It is the Medusa, isn’t it?” “It is, yes. My grandfather carved it.” “Isn’t it an odd choice for a figurehead?” Machaon asked. “A monster?” Cassandra turned to look at him. “Was she a monster?” “She turned every living thing she ever met to stone. I’d call that a monster, wouldn’t you?” “But isn’t that the point? Who decides who’s a monster?” “The winner.” I could see she was taken aback by that, by the brutal cynicism of it—or the honesty. “So what you’re saying is, if she’d killed Perseus—and not the other way round—he’d be the monster. Is that right?” “Yes, I suppose so.” “Instead of just an objectionable little prick?”
― Pat Barker, The Voyage Home: A Novel

“He was sitting with both hands spread out in front of him, the veins as blue as drowned worms.”
― Pat Barker, The Voyage Home: A Novel