Victoria Hislop > Quotes

“Like any collection of family photographs, it was a random selection that told only fragments of a story. The real tale would be revealed by the pictures that were missing or never even taken at all, not the ones that had been so carefully framed or packed away neatly in an envelope.”
― Victoria Hislop, The Island

“The sun rose, the moon saturated the night sky with its silver light and the stars blazed, indifferent to the events happening below them.”
― Victoria Hislop

“They wound their way through a labyrinth of streets, partly following their noses, partly the orientation of the map. Jardines, Mirasol, Cruz, Puentezuelas, Capuchinas...
Each word held its magic. They were like brushstrokes painting the landscape of the city, each one helping to build up a picture of the whole.”
― Victoria Hislop, The Return

“Dance halls were where young men and women conducted their courtships, and most had one clear objective: to find a spouse. Mercedes was an exception. The last thing on her mind was to find a soulmate.... When she went out on a Friday and Saturday night she had no desire for anything beyond the life-enhancing thrill of the dance.”
― Victoria Hislop, The Return

“After the endless disappointing cups of Nescafé, served as though the tasteless dissolving granules of instant coffee were a delicacy, Alexis felt no cup of coffee had ever tasted as powerful and delicious as this.
It seemed that nobody had the heart to tell the Greeks that Nescafé was no longer a novelty – it was this old-fashioned thick and treacly fluid that everyone, including her, craved.”
― Victoria Hislop, The Island

“The parrot had a range of phrases. His own name ('Niko, Niko'), the name of his original owner and now 'Stavros'. Occasionally he would also say 'Panagia mou', which could be an expression of piety but also a gentle expletive, depending on how it was said. With the parrot it was hard to tell. It did not sound pious.”
― Victoria Hislop, The Last Dance and Other Stories

“the weekly market. In short, he had done everything he humanly could, but the population of Spinalonga always wanted more and Elpida was not sure that her husband had the energy to fulfil their expectations. She worried about him constantly. He was in his late fifties, like her, but his health was failing. Leprosy was”
― Victoria Hislop, The Island

“When the people are threatened with tyranny, they must choose either chains or guns.”
― Victoria Hislop, Those Who Are Loved

“De siste ti årene hadde Hellas opplevd minst et dusin statskupp og nesten dobbelt så mange regjeringer, og pendelen hadde fortsat å svinge mellom tilhengere og motstandere av monarkiet. Monarkiets være eller ikke være var et evig tema for stridigheter og debatt i Hellas. I 1920, da kong Alexander døde av et apebitt, vendte faren hans hjem fra eksil, bare for å bli kastet ut av landet igjen to år senere. Han ble erstattet av sin eldste sønn, Georg, som i sin tur måtte tre av mot slutten av det neste året. Kong Georg hadde levd i eksil i nesten tolv år da han kunne vende tilbake til tronen etter en manipulert folkeavstemning.”
― Victoria Hislop, The Thread

“Books are the essence of life. And there is nothing like a good story to pass the time.”
― Victoria Hislop, Cartes Postales from Greece

“have learned that the source of joy is not to be found in another person and we should not look for someone”
― Victoria Hislop, Cartes Postales from Greece

“People always want to direct a visitor to their favourite place,”
― Victoria Hislop, Cartes Postales from Greece

“Soldiers kept out, shouting at him, waving guns and screaming abuse. There was an air of anarchy about them, a madness brought about by months of doing almost nothing except guarding an empty city where nothing stirred except vermin and reptiles.”
― Victoria Hislop, The Sunrise

“Her driving force was the belief that education was not a means to some nebulous end but had intrinsic value, and made the children better people.”
― Victoria Hislop, The Island

“In his entire life he had never been alone in the water; it was an infinite space shared b everyone.”
― Victoria Hislop, The Sunrise

“Why do people stay together? Putting aside ‘for the sake of the children’, and ‘the habit of years’ and ‘economic reasons’ as lawyers’ nonsense – it’s not much more – if one really does try to find out why it is that people don’t leave each other, one discovers a mystery.”
― Victoria Hislop, The Story: Love, Loss & The Lives of Women: 100 Great Short Stories

“Hamish’s impression was that kindness itself was a cure, and one that was as powerful as any drug. Many”
― Victoria Hislop, The Figurine

“-"Why do you light these candles when you're not religious?"
His grandmother pondered her ritual for a moment. [...]
-"It's my way of keeping those wonderful people alive", she answered.
- "And does it work?"
-"I believe so, Nikos," she said. "There is a line I have always held on to. It comes from that poem Fotini copied out all those years ago."
- "How does it go?" asked Popi quietly.
Themis paused a moment.
- "Those who are loved," she quoted. "They shall not die...”
― Victoria Hislop, Those Who Are Loved

“a tip-off about the whereabouts”
― Victoria Hislop, The Island

“Her mother did not respond. War was closer than anyone imagined and the question of whose side to take soon became a topic of national conversation. In September 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, and Britain and France declared war on Germany. During the following months, the conflict escalated and it seemed that every country must decide who to support”
― Victoria Hislop, Those Who Are Loved

“Eleni”
― Victoria Hislop, The Island

“spilled out like a volcanic eruption. Wardrobe”
― Victoria Hislop, The Island

“Mount Olympus. This ever-changing sea. The tankers. The fishing vessels. I know you think I can't see them, but I could once. I know they are there, I still have them in my mind's eye, and I always will have. And it's not just what you are looking at, is it? Just close your eyes”
― Victoria Hislop

“time.”
― Victoria Hislop, The Sunrise

“kleftiko,”
― Victoria Hislop, The Sunrise

“arrived, and Vellopoulos”
― Victoria Hislop, The Figurine

“This was not the start of a short trip to deliver supplies. It was the beginning of a one-way journey to start a new life. Life on a leper colony. Life on Spinalonga.”
― Victoria Hislop, The Island

“Making meals for them all was Irini Georgiou's refuge, but when the cooking was completed and the meal had been served and eaten and every knife and fork put away, her sadness would still be waiting for her, like a coat hanging on the back of the door.”
― Victoria Hislop, The Sunrise

“Bilo je života i budućnosti koje se nikad neće dogoditi.”
― Victoria Hislop, The Sunrise

“Once she was face to face with the people who led the way their silence was unnerving. No one seemed to speak. They looked right through her as though she didn't exist. They were like sleepwalkers. She stood aside to let them pass. One by one they went by, old, young, the lame, the wounded, children, pregnant women, eyes staring ahead or fixed to the ground. One thing they all shred, apart from a look of fear, was a sense of resignation. There was vacancy in their expression, as though all emotion had been wiped out of them.”
― Victoria Hislop, The Return