Despina > Despina's Quotes

“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“Name one hero who was happy."
I considered. Heracles went mad and killed his family; Theseus lost his bride and father; Jason's children and new wife were murdered by his old; Bellerophon killed the Chimera but was crippled by the fall from Pegasus' back.
"You can't." He was sitting up now, leaning forward.
"I can't."
"I know. They never let you be famous AND happy." He lifted an eyebrow. "I'll tell you a secret."
"Tell me." I loved it when he was like this.
"I'm going to be the first." He took my palm and held it to his. "Swear it."
"Why me?"
"Because you're the reason. Swear it."
"I swear it," I said, lost in the high color of his cheeks, the flame in his eyes.
"I swear it," he echoed.
We sat like that a moment, hands touching. He grinned.
"I feel like I could eat the world raw.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“He is half of my soul, as the poets say.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“I am made of memories.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“I have done it," she says. At first I do not understand. But then I see the tomb, and the marks she has made on the stone. A C H I L L E S, it reads. And beside it, P A T R O C L U S.
"Go," she says. "He waits for you."

In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“Achilles was looking at me. “Your hair never quite lies flat, here.” He touched my head, just behind my ear. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you how I like it.”

My scalp prickled where his fingers had been. “You haven’t,” I said.

“I should have.” His hand drifted down to the vee at the base of my throat, drew softly across the pulse. “What about this? Have I told you what I think of this, just here?”

“No,” I said.

“This surely then.” His hand moved across the muscles of my chest; my skin warmed beneath it. “Have I told you of this?”

“That you have told me.” My breath caught a little as I spoke.

“And what of this?” His hand lingered over my hips, drew down the line of my thigh. “Have I spoken of it?”

“You have.”

“And this? Surely I would not have forgotten this.” His cat’s smile. “Tell me I did not.”

“You did not.”

“There is this too.” His hand was ceaseless now. “I know I have told you of this.”

I closed my eyes. “Tell me again,” I said.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“That is — your friend?"
"Philtatos," Achilles replied, sharply. Most beloved.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“I feel like I could eat the world raw.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“Name one hero who was happy.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“The times you lived through, the people you shared those times with — nothing brings it all to life like an old mix tape. It does a better job of storing up memories than actual brain tissue can do. Every mix tape tells a story. Put them together, and they can add up to the story of a life.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“Our lives were just beginning, our favorite moment was right now, our favorite songs were unwritten.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“I realize that I will never fully understand the millions of bizarre ways that music brings people together.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“But the answer is simple. Love is a mix tape.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“Nothing connects to the moment like music. I count the music to bring me back, or more precisely, to bring her forward.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“Sometimes great tunes happen to bad times, and when the bad time is over, not all the tunes get to move on with you.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“It stops here. With me and you. It ends with us.”
― Colleen Hoover, It Ends with Us

“He pulls back to look down at me and when he sees my tears, he brings his hands up to my cheeks. “In the future... if by some miracle you ever find yourself in the position to fall in love again... fall in love with me.”
― Colleen Hoover, It Ends with Us

“Fifteen seconds. That’s all it takes to completely change everything about a person. Fifteen.”
― Colleen Hoover, It Ends with Us

“And as hard as this choice is, we break the pattern before the pattern breaks us.”
― Colleen Hoover, It Ends with Us

“Imagine all the people you meet in your life. There are so many. They come in like waves, trickling in and out with the tide. Some waves are much bigger and make more of an impact than others. Sometimes the waves bring with them things from deep in the bottom of the sea and they leave those things tossed onto the shore. Imprints against the grains of sand that prove the waves had once been there, long after the tide recedes. That was what Atlas was telling me when he said “I love you.” He was letting me know that I was the biggest wave he’d ever come across. And I brought so much with me that my impressions would always be there, even when the tide rolled out.”
― Colleen Hoover, It Ends with Us

“Life is a funny thing. We only get so many years to live it, so we have to do everything we can to make sure those years are as full as they can be. We shouldn't waste time on things that might happen someday, or maybe even never.”
― Colleen Hoover, It Ends with Us

“In the future... if by some miracle you ever find yourself in the position to fall in love again... fall in love with me.” He presses his lips against my forehead. “You’re still my favorite person, Lily. Always will be.”
― Colleen Hoover, It Ends with Us

“Maybe love isn’t something that comes full circle. It just ebbs and flows, in and out, just like the people in our lives”
― Colleen Hoover, It Ends with Us

“I think that’s one of the biggest signs a person has matured—knowing how to appreciate things that matter to others, even if they don’t matter very much to you.”
― Colleen Hoover, It Ends with Us

“He looked at me with a hundred stories lit behind his eyes.”
― Adrienne Young, Fable

“The only safety that existed was in being completely alone.”
― Adrienne Young, Fable

“Isolde was the wind and sea and sky of Saint's world. She was the pattern of stars that he navigated by, the sum of all directions on his compass. And he was lost without her.”
― Adrienne Young, Fable

“My mother had loved Saint with a love that could set fire to the sea”
― Adrienne Young, Fable

“I have thought about you every single day since that day. Maybe every hour. I've counted days to go back to the island, and I pushed us into storms I shouldn't have because I didn't want to not be there when you woke up. I didn't want you to wait for me. Ever. Or to think I wasn't coming back." He paused. "I struck the deal with Saint because I wanted the ship, but I kept it because of you. When you got off the Marigold in Ceros and I didn't know if I would ever see you again, I thought . . . I felt like I couldn't breathe.”
― Adrienne Young, Fable