Sook Quesnell > Sook's Quotes

“Part of the hem floated loose. She spun around again—the fabric tightened like wool on a spindle. She breathed in fear. The boat was farther away. She swung her head around—so was the shore.”
― Yvonne Korshak, Pericles and Aspasia: A Story of Ancient Greece

“He desperately tried to think of a story to explain his involvement in her sudden appearance, without mentioning the book of magic in his possession.
 ”
― Max Nowaz, The Three Witches and the Master

“underlings, was, by his own account, in the boat ‘seeking pleasure with young boys’. Big Chief Chen turned out to be a protégé of Prince Chun. After Chen was exposed, the prince wrote repeatedly to Cixi, telling her that ‘I am extremely fond of this man and intend to use him for our cause against foreign barbarians.’ Chen must be well treated, as all men of ideals in the empire would be watching what happened to him and would see whether the throne had any serious desire to ‘avenge the country’. The mob must be ‘encouraged’, not punished, warned the prince. It was obvious that Chen had instigated the riot, and behind him stood Prince Chun. It also became clear to Cixi that Prince Chun had intended the whole country to do as Tianjin did. During the massacre and its aftermath, unrest rippled throughout the empire, with the same eyes-and-hearts rumour circulating about the missionaries. In some places, posters were put up in the streets announcing that on a specified day all must come out to slaughter foreigners and destroy churches. Riots, though on a smaller scale, broke out in a number of cities.”
― Jung Chang, Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China

“She’s nice enough, but she’s got the IQ of an artichoke.”
― Peter Benchley, Jaws

“He was justifying his existence, than which life can do no greater; for life achieves its summit when it does to the uttermost that which it was equipped to do.”
― Jack London

“- A trecut de 21 de ani, Rosie. O sa fie doctor. Lasa-l sa-si foloseasca stetoscopul sa-si asculte propria inima.”
― Erich Segal, Doctors

“. . . she gave him one of those broad smiles she reserved for strangers, as if she were aware of being able to pass, in their eyes, for an ordinary woman.”
― Nicole Krauss, Great House

“Antago”
― Walter Farley, The Island Stallion's Fury

“As many truths as men. Occasionally, I glimpse a truer Truth, hiding in imperfect simulacrums of itself, but as I approach, it bestirs itself & moves deeper into the thorny swamp of dissent.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

“Meaning is a shaky edifice we build out of scraps, dogmas, childhood injuries, newspaper articles, chance remarks, old fillms, small victories, people hated, people loved; perhaps it is because our sense of what is the case is constructed from such inadequate materials that we defend it so fiercely, even to death.”
― Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991

“Why did you let her take the head off London Bridge?"
Cromwell:"You know me, Stephen. The fluid of benevolence flows through my veins and sometimes overspills.”
― Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies

“Reading keeps you from going ga-ga.”
― Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

“-Aquí pasa como poco antes del treinta y tres, cuando los rojos y los pardos se unieron contra nosotros, hasta que luego los pardos liquidaron primero a los rojos e inmediatamente después nos llegó el turno a nosotros. Y así desapareció la solidaridad. Bueno, ésos no aprenden nunca de la historia. Quieren siempre todo o nada. A los sociatas nos odian porque, si hace falta, nos conformamos también con la mitad”
― Günter Grass, Peeling the Onion