The German Girl Quotes

“No one told you how exhausting it was to grieve. How all-consuming. How the only escape was sometimes sleep - when for just a moment you were you again.”
― Lily Graham, The German Girl

“Above their heads was the flapping of wings, and a flight of swallows returned to their nest. Ingrid caught her breath as she remembered what he'd told her once about how a swallow will always find its way home if it can find its nest”
― Lily Graham, The German Girl

“They forget that another language doesn't mean another species. It's not easy to ignore someone's humanity when it is staring you in the face”
― Lily Graham, The German Girl

“They'd all learnt about the cost of prejudice, and how damaging it really was”
― Lily Graham, The German Girl

“The man she'd married had never come back from those godforsaken trenches. She didn't necessarily blame him; it had come as a shock when he was conscripted, like so many other residents of Southern Jutland, to fight for Germany. It was one of the reasons they'd moved to Elsinore after the war. What neither of them had realised was that the past comes with you, Unless you fight like hell to let it go”
― Lily Graham, The German Girl

“Since Asta could remember, Jurgen was usually found with a sketchbook in hand. He was forever drawing something he'd seen: scenes of daily life in Hamburg, from canals to people at cafes and restaurants or sitting on benches. He drew dogs roaming free, as well as Asta and their adventures. There was a playfulness to his scenes, a way of looking at the world and finding the humour, along with the shared humanity”
― Lily Graham, The German Girl

“What right did she have to his memories - to his painful past; it was his, wasn't it? She wanted to know about it more than anything, but not if it was going to hurt him this much - never that”
― Lily Graham, The German Girl

“There was never a good time to change your life - but there were times when it felt like the earth turned on its axis in such a way that all you had to do was take a leap”
― Lily Graham, The German Girl