Angela

“The bird with the thorn in its breast, it follows an immutable law; it is driven by it knows not what to impale itself, and die singing. At the very instant the thorn enters there is no awareness in it of the dying to come; it simply sings and sings until there is not the life left to utter another note. But we, when we put the thorns in our breasts, we know. We understand. And still we do it. Still we do it.”
― Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds

“Each of us has something within us which won't be denied, even if it makes us scream aloud to die. We are what we are, that's all. Like the old Celtic legend of the bird with the thorn in its breast, singing its heart out and dying. Because it has to, its self-knowledge can't affect or change the outcome, can it? Everyone singing his own little song, convinced it's the most wonderful song the world has ever heard. Don't you see? We create our own thorns, and never stop to count the cost. All we can do is suffer the pain, and tell ourselves it was well worth it.”
― Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds

“there are three things we cry for in life: things that are lost, things that are found, and things that are magnificent.”
― Douglas Coupland, Girlfriend in a Coma

“Don’t you see? We create our own thorns, and never stop to count the cost. All we can do is suffer the pain, and tell ourselves it was well worth it.’ ‘That’s what I don’t understand. The pain.’ He glanced down at her hand, so gently on his arm, hurting him so unbearably. ‘Why the pain, Meggie?’ ‘Ask God, Ralph,’ said Meggie. ‘He’s the authority on pain, isn’t He? He made us what we are, He made the whole world. Therefore He made the pain, too.”
― Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds