Jean Menzies > Quotes

“I do, Fia.’ Tearlach sighed. ‘He was my best friend and my brother. We grew up together. Grief does not leave us, but we learn over time to smile more at those memories we still keep of that person than to wallow in their absence. We are the creatures we are because of them, for good or bad, and because of that their memory lives on.”
― Jean Menzies, The Flames of Albiyon

“To the ancient Greeks, myths were the same as history—they believed that all of the fantastical events in them had really happened once upon a time. The myths were their way of making sense of the past, even as far back as how the world was created.”
― Jean Menzies, Greek Myths: Meet the Heroes and Heroines, Monsters and Gods of Ancient Greece

“You don't have to be worshipped to be worthy of respect. You don't have to be a goddess to live like one.”
― Jean Menzies, Live Like A Goddess: Life Lessons from Legends and Lore

“The ancient Greek civilization stretched across the Mediterranean, but all parts shared many of the same gods and heroes. The stories about these figures are the Greek myths. Myths were how the ancient Greeks understood the world around them. They painted them on tableware, performed them in theatres, and even referenced them in courts of law. It is impossible to understand the ancient Greeks without understanding their myths and what these stories meant to them.”
― Jean Menzies, Greek Myths: Meet the Heroes and Heroines, Monsters and Gods of Ancient Greece

“It is both of these things, the malleability and the familiarity, that offer a haven for modern queer folk to explore those timeless emotions and experiences that feel so personal, how the LGBTQIA+ community, my community, has found such a profound connection through these tales.”
― Jean Menzies, All the Violet Tiaras: Queering the Greek Myths

“I'm not sure how many men are in the market for sorceresses as wives. They might find it kind of...threatening."

My guilt immediately vanished. "Maybe I'm not in the market for someone who prefers their women weak and obedient. Maybe I don't want to be on the market in the first place.”
― Jean Menzies, The Lady of the Lake

“It is important to understand that mythology has always been malleable, open to interpretation, and used by individuals and groups across time to say different things. The ancient Greek themselves understood their myths as such. A great number of classical myths that have survived from antiquity in fact possess a number of different, if nog contradictory, versions within the historical records.”
― Jean Menzies, All the Violet Tiaras: Queering the Greek Myths

“Morgan could have been a fairy queen, I thought as I watched her walk towards me, each step causing the water to ripple and stroke against my thighs.

In a different time, we might have been queens together. But I would not be disappointed in what we had. What was happening here, now, was true magic.

Not the tricks Merlin taught us, but the fire that raged inside me for Morgan, which I was now certain flared in Morgan too.

"Show me your realm, lady of the lake," she whispered close to my ear, sending a tiny shudder down my spine.”
― Jean Menzies, The Lady of the Lake