Siwen Zhang

“You still think love can save us. It’s more killing than hate. Hate is so clean, so simple. Like being in the ring. With hate, you just keep hitting. You hit until they stop hitting back. With love… They never stop.”
― Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds

“What was sleep? A blessing, a respite from life, an echo of death, a demanding nuisance? ”
― Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds

“When we press the thorn to our chest we know, we understand, and still we do it.”
― Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds

“There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. And, dying, it rises above its own agony to outcarol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and God in His heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain… Or so says the legend.”
― Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds