The Palace Quotes

“The palace started as a single vaulted room and grew in proportion to my despair. It began as an exercise to keep my mind from its melancholy, then it became a dream and a necessity. . . . I built a temple in my head. . . . Its hallways were as lofty as a cathedral, and the arch of each window as supple as a bow. Its corridors were the passages of my own brain.”
― Lisa St. Aubin de Teran, The Palace

“I knew, as every peasant does, that land can never be truly owned. We are the keepers of the soil, the curators of trees.”
― Lisa St. Aubin de Teran, The Palace

“Like poetry, in times of intense emotion the image returns to me. Like poetry, it stroked my soul and, by turns, lulled and stoked my senses.”
― Lisa St. Aubin de Teran, The Palace

“My head was a desolate place and as barren as the bare hills of Le Marche. Until I began to build in it, only vultures nested there.”
― Lisa St. Aubin de Teran, The Palace

“Fine food is poison. It can be as bitter as antimony and bitter almonds and as repulsive as swallowing live toads. Like the poison the emperor took every day to stop himself being poisoned, fine food must be taken daily until the system becomes immune to its ravages and the taste buds beaten and abused to the point where they not only accept but savour every vile concoction under the sun.”
― Lisa St. Aubin de Teran, The Palace

“My head was a desolate place and as barren as the bare hills of Le Marche. Until I began to build in it, only vultures nested there.
The palace started as a single vaulted room and grew in proportion to my despair. It began as an exercise to keep my mind from its melancholy, then it became a dream and a necessity. . . . I built a temple in my head. . . . Its hallways were as lofty as a cathedral, and the arch of each window as supple as a bow. Its corridors were the passages of my own brain.”
― Lisa St. Aubin de Terán, The Palace

“It was always a dream house, and like a dream, it has no end.”
― Lisa St. Aubin de Terán, The Palace

“Words are the bricks and mortar of love.”
― Lisa St. Aubin de Terán, The Palace

“I was touched by the millennial madness.”
― Lisa St. Aubin de Terán, The Palace

“He knew what he did because all Venetians knew it.”
― Lisa St. Aubin de Terán, The Palace