The Brutal Telling Quotes

“Where there is love there is courage,
where there is courage there is peace,
where there is peace there is God.
And when you have God, you have everything.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“The leaves had fallen from the trees and lay crisp and crackling beneath his feet. Picking one up he marveled, not for the first time, at the perfection of nature where leaves were most beautiful at the very end of their lives.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“What are you afraid of?
I'm afraid of not recognizing Paradise.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“What haunted people even, perhaps especially, on their deathbed? What chased them, tortured them and brought some of them to their knees? And [he] thought he had the answer. Regret. Regret for things said, things done, and things not done. Regret for the people they might have been. And failed to be. ”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“But there was no hiding from Conscience. Not in new homes and new cars. In travel. In meditation or frantic activity. In children, in good works. On tiptoes or bended knee. In a big career. Or a small cabin. It would find you. The past always did. Which was why... it was vital to be aware of actions in the present. Because the present became the past, and the past grew. And got up, and followed you. And found you... Who wouldn't be afraid of this?”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“I just sit where I'm put, composed
of stone and wishful thinking:
that the deity who kills for pleasure
will also heal,
that in the midst of your nightmare,
the final one, a kind lion
will come with bandages in her mouth
and the soft body of a woman,
and lick you clean of fever,
and pick your soul up gently by the nape of the neck
and caress you into darkness and paradise.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“Better to accept the wretched truth than struggle, twisting to make a wish a reality.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“Most unhappiness comes from not being able to sit quietly in a room.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“...it was vital to be aware of actions in the present. Because the present became the past, and the past grew. And got up, and followed you.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“Like a first love, the place where peace is first found is never, ever forgotten.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“People wandered in for books and conversation. They brought their stories to her, some bound, and some known by heart. She recognized some of the stories as real, and some as fiction. But she honored them all, though she didn't buy every one.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“The reason “belonging” was so potent, so attractive, so much a part of the human yearning, was that it also meant safety, and loyalty. If you were “one of us” you were protected.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“Her voice was slightly accented but her French was perfect. Someone who'd not just learned the language but loved it. And it showed with every syllable. Gamache knew it was impossible to split language from culture. That without one the other withered. To love the language was to respect the culture.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“When Olivier had been taken away Gamache had sat back down and stared at the sack. what could be worse than Chaos, Despair, War?

What would even the Mountain flee from? Gamache had given it a lot of thought.

What haunted people even, perhaps especially, on their deathbed? What chased them, tortured them and brought some of them to their knees? And Gamache thought he had the answer.

Regret.

Regret for things said, for things done, and not done. Regret for the people they might have been. And failed to be.

Finally, when he was alone, the Chief Inspector had opened the sack and looking inside had realize he'd been wrong. The worst thing of all wasn't regret.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“Not a spoon clinked against a mug, not a creamer was popped, peeled and opened, not a breath. It was as though something else had joined them then. As though silence had taken a seat.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“He was an emotional communist. Everyone counted equally, but none too much.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“Life was about to take her away from here. Fro the place where she'd become herself. This sold little village that never changed but helped its inhabitants to change. She's arrived straight from art college full of avant-garde ideas, wearing shades of gray and seeing the world in black and white. So sure of herself. But here, in the middle of nowhere, she'd discovered color. And nuance. She'd learned this from the villagers, who'd been generous enough to lend her their souls to paint. Not as perfect human beings, but as flawed, struggling men and women. Filled with fear and uncertainty and, in at least one case, martinis.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“Clara Morrow had painted Ruth as the elderly, forgotten Virgin Mary. Angry, demented, the Ruth in the portrait was full of despair, of bitterness. Of a life left behind, of opportunities squandered, of loss and betrayals real and imagined and created and caused. She clutched at a rough blue shawl with emaciated hands. The shawl had slipped off one bony shoulder and the skin was sagging, like something nailed up and empty.
“And yet the portrait was radiant, filling the room from one tiny point of light. In her eyes. Embittered, mad Ruth stared into the distance, at something very far off, approaching. More imagined than real.
Hope.
Clara had captured the moment despair turned to hope. The moment life began. She’d somehow captured Grace.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“But odd as his family might be, they were nothing compared to this. In fact, that was one of the great comforts of his job. At least his family compared well to people who actually killed each other, rather than just thought about it.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“Funny how imperfections on the outside mean something splendid beneath.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“He had loads of colleagues, acquaintances, buddies. He was an emotional communist. Everyone counted equally, but none too much.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“In the kitchen Gamache’s German shepherd, Henri, sat up in his bed and cocked his head. He had huge oversized ears which made Gamache think he wasn’t purebred but a cross between a shepherd and a satellite dish.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“Now he had her full attention. Not only because she wanted to know what had happened, but because anyone who’d get up at two in the morning to smack a melon in the dark deserved attention. Perhaps even medical attention.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“Gamache watched the old poet. He knew what was looming behind the Mountain. What crushed all before it. The thing the Hermit most feared. The Mountain most feared.

Conscience.

...

Which is why, Gamache knew, it was vital to be aware of actions in the present. Because the present became the past, and the past grew. And got up, and followed you.

And found you ...

Who wouldn't be afraid of this?”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“What kills can’t be seen, the Chief had warned Beauvoir. That’s what makes it so dangerous. It’s not a gun or a knife or a fist. It’s not anything you can see coming. It’s an emotion. Rancid, spoiled. And waiting for a chance to strike.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“Olivier looked at him blankly. But the Chief Inspector had seen that look before. It was, in fact, almost impossible to look blank. Unless the person wanted to. A blank face to the Chief Inspector meant a frantic mind.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“She'd wanted to run an inn. To welcome people, to mother them. They had no children of their own, and she had a powerful need to nurture.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“It’s a Buddhist belief. One of the states of man from the Wheel of Life. The more you eat the hungrier you get. It’s considered the very worst of the lives. Trying to fill a hole that only gets deeper. Fill it with food or money or power. With the admiration of others. Whatever.” “The Hungry Ghost,”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“FINE? Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic and Egotistical?”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling

“Where there is love there is courage, where there is courage there is peace, where there is peace there is God. And when you have God, you have everything.”
― Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling