The Exiles Quotes

“Every person you’ve ever cared about, and every place you’ve ever loved, is one of these shells. You’re the thread that ties them together,” she’d said, touching Mathinna’s cheek. “You carry the people and places you cherish with you. Remember that and you will never be lonely, child.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“All of them fused together to give the tree its solid core. Maybe humans are like that, she thought. Maybe the moments that meant something to you and the people you’ve loved over the years are the rings. Maybe what you thought you’d lost is still there, inside of you, giving you strength.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“This is why we can’t leave the making of laws to men. They result in travesties of injustice that unfairly burden the poor. And women. Those high and mighty aristocrats, in their black robes and powdered wigs—they have no idea.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“She thought of all the women she knew, who'd been given nothing, who'd been scorned and misjudged, who'd had to fight for every scrap. They were her many mothers: Evangeline, who gave her life, and Hazel, who saved it; Olive and Maeve, who fed and nurtured her; even Dr. Garret. Each of them lived inside her and always would. They were the rings of the tree that Hazel was always going on about, the shells on her thread. Ruby titled her head at Cecil. He went inside the door. And she was on her way.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“I’d say ye can’t know what code ye live by until it’s tested.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“Maybe humans are like that, she thought. Maybe the moments that meant something to you and the people you've loved over the years are the rings. Maybe what you thought you'd lost is still there, inside of you, giving you strength.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“She felt her fear unspooling like a tight fist opening. It was as if she'd been standing on a precipice and suddenly tipped forward. There was no point in feeling afraid. She was already falling, falling through the air, and her future, whatever it held, was rushing up to meet her.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“Mathinna remembered what her mother had said about thinking of yourself as the thread of a necklace, the people and places you treasure as the shells. Maybe Wanganip and Hazel were saying the same thing: that if you love something it stays with you, even after it's gone.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“She remembered something her father had told her as he knelt at the hearth one evening, building a fire. Holding up the cut end of a log, he showed her the rings inside, explaining that each one marked a year. Some were wider than others, depending on the weather, he said; they were lighter in winter and darker in summer. All of them fused together to give the tree its solid core.
Maybe humans are like that, she thought. Maybe the moments that meant something to you and the people you've loved over the years are the rings Maybe what you thought you'd lost is still there, inside of you, giving you strength.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“A trick to play in your mind when your troubled. You think of yourself as a tree, with all the rings inside. And every ring is someone you care about, or a place you’ve been. You carry them with you wherever you go.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“Yes, Evangeline loathed this place, but she loathed more the vanity and naivete and willful ignorance that had landed her here.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“Her father wanted to insulate her, to shelter her from harm, and in doing so he denied her the inoculation required to survive.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“Evangeline had lain here, in this bed. Paced this floor. She'd been younger than Ruby when she came to this house, trying to find her way in the world, and she left it pregnant and scared, with no one to help her. Ruby thought of all the women who came into Warwick Hospital and St. Mary's Dispensary, seeking treatment. Heavy with child, or writhing in pain from venereal diseases, or carrying newborns and toddlers. All the burdens of being poor and female, as Dr. Garrett put it. No one to catch you if you fell.
Looking down at the worn pine floor, Ruby was struck by a realization; she'd been in this room before, when she was barely more than a whispered thought.
"Will you excuse me?" Mr. Whitstone said. "I'll just be a minute."
She nodded. It was late in the afternoon. She wanted to get back to her lodgings before dark. Though she wasn't looking forward to the long voyage back to Tasmania, she was eager to share what she'd learned during her year abroad.
This moment in Evangeline's room, she knew, had nothing to do with the rest of her life and everything to do with it. She would leave this house changed, but no one would ever know she'd been here.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“She stayed as quiet as she could. This, she found, was the trick: you didn’t have to react to each little thing. You could just exist. Let your mind simmer over a low fire.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“Angel’s trumpet. Beautiful, in’it? Eating these flowers makes your troubles go away. Problem is, too much will kill ye.” She laughed. “It got its name because it’s the last thing you’ll see before ascending into heaven.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“arnica for pains and bruises, mandrake for sleeplessness, and pennyroyal, a flowering mint, for unwanted pregnancy. For dysentery, egg whites and boiled milk. For fainting spells, a tablespoon”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“Hazel gazed up at the moon, as yellow as a yolk in a cast-iron sky. By”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“Let no one say the past is dead. The past is all about us and within.
-Oodgeroo Noonuccal
Prologue”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“England used to send its dregs to America, but after the rebellion, they had to find a new rubbish dump. Australia it was.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“She scrounged herbs from the cook and planted some of the seeds she’d smuggled on board with her in a box of manure: arnica for pains and bruises, mandrake for sleeplessness, and pennyroyal, a flowering mint, for unwanted pregnancy. For dysentery, egg whites and boiled milk. For fainting spells, a tablespoon of vinegar. She created a paste from lard, honey, oats, and eggs as a salve for chapped hands and feet.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“Every person you’ve ever cared about, and every place you’ve ever loved, is one of these shells. You’re the thread that ties them together,” she’d said, touching Mathinna’s cheek. “You carry the people and places you cherish with you. Remember that and you will never be lonely,”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“My friend—the one who died—taught me a trick to play in your mind when you’re troubled. Ye think of yourself as a tree, with all the rings inside. And every ring is someone ye care about, or a place you’ve been. Ye carry them with ye wherever ye go.” Mathinna remembered what her mother had said about thinking of yourself as the thread of a necklace, the people and places you treasure as the shells. Maybe Wanganip and Hazel were saying the same thing: that if you love something it stays with you, even after it’s gone.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“Every person you’ve ever cared about, and every place you’ve ever loved, is one of these shells. You’re the thread that ties them together,” she’d said, touching Mathinna’s cheek. “You carry the people and places you cherish with you.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“They were, both of them, exiles, torn from their homes and families. But Hazel had stolen a spoon to earn that status; Mathinna has done nothing to deserve her fate. Hazel was marked with the convict stain and would be for many years, but it erased itself as time went on. She could already feel it lessening. She could stroll through the market with a basket over her arm, and Ruby's hand in hers, and no one would guess. Mathinna has no such luxury. She would never be able to melt into the crowd, to go about her business without judgement and suspicion.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“It was time to let go. She was no longer an angry child. She didn't want to carry that burning coal around anymore; she was ready to be rid of it. Yes, her mother had been selfish and irresponsible; yes, she sent her out onto the streets to steal and turned her back when she was caught. She also taught her the skills that would save her.
The guard, heartless bastard, was right: Hazel was only hurting herself.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“Fit as a butcher’s dog.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles