Broken Light Quotes

“Bitch! Cunt! Fucking whore! When do boys and men learn those words? Did Adam even know what they meant? Or were they just magical formulae, designed to rob girls of their power?”
― Joanne Harris, Broken Light

“It feels like a hot flash, but now I’m beginning to understand what it really is. There’s something about a woman’s rage that feels very old, very primal. A man’s rage may be more physical, but a woman’s rage is born from centuries of violence. It calls across cultures. It calls across race. It is old, and hungry, and dark, and does not know its power. Yet. But wielded correctly, it can reduce men to snivelling little boys.”
― Joanne Harris, Broken Light

“Love always reminds me of death. The more you love, the more you lose, the more you come to fear losing it.”
― Joanne Harris, Broken Light

“Not all men have done these things, but all women have experienced them. Not all men have taken part, but all men have looked away.”
― Joanne Harris, Broken Light

“I wanted to tell her that boys who don’t value girls’ stories eventually grow into men who don’t value women’s rights.”
― Joanne Harris, Broken Light

“No man ever really believes, deep down, that he is a predator. Some abusers blame their wives for their sexual frustration. Some blame their mothers for the way they were raised. Some men even tell themselves they are acting out a biological imperative, effectively blaming Mother Nature herself for their lack of self-control. There’s always a woman to blame behind every crime against womankind.”
― Joanne Harris, Broken Light

“Evil is not a uniform, or a mark of Cain. Evil is not extraordinary. Evil is someone you know. Someone you could never imagine doing anything wrong, because they’re your friend, and you’re a good guy.”
― Joanne Harris, Broken Light

“See? You needed to relax. All this is just hormones. The inner voice had softened now, becoming almost affectionate. And yet, I thought, how often we hear the phrase; it’s just hormones. As if hormones were not the most powerful force in the human body. Hormones tell us what to do; when to grow; when to sleep; when to eat. Hormones regulate temperature; fertility; muscle development. Hormones trigger every stage of the body’s development. Hormones dictate our mental health. They drive our personality. They are the source of all power, all change in the body and the mind.”
― Joanne Harris, Broken Light

“maybe perfection is not the aim, and that people are born to be themselves, and to be perfectly human.”
― Joanne Harris, Broken Light

“The idea that you could make yourself into the person you wanted to be was suddenly very bright in my mind. You can clean your own house, I thought. Throw out the stuff you don’t want to keep. The things people gave you to carry. Their dreams. The weight of their expectation.”
― Joanne Harris, Broken Light

“I wondered if all women were torn between feeling invisible and feeling horribly exposed; as if the gaze of the world were a lens that could burn you up as easily as blur you out of existence.”
― Joanne Harris, Broken Light

“Be careful. You’ll get fat, said the voice of my inner critic. Whose voice is that, anyway? I’ve heard it ever since I was a child; that spiteful voice, that tells me that I’m too ugly, too lazy, too fat – but too fat for what? Too fat to be loved? Too fat for my space? Too fat to deserve attention?”
― Joanne Harris, Broken Light