Anne Fortier Quotes & Sayings

Happiness is the worst threat to my business. Dreams are what it's all about. Frustrations. Fantasies that never come true. — Anne Fortier

And so we walked through customs arm in arm; while the officer barely looked at my passport, he did look twice at Eva Maria's cleavage. — Anne Fortier

It is madness. But sometimes, madness is the only path forward. — Anne Fortier

In the face of a true friend a man sees, as it were, a second self. - CICERO, De Amicitia I — Anne Fortier

It is a great honor to meet you, young man. Now, here is someone very special that I want you to meet."
And she pulled one of the little girls into her lap, and said, as if she was presenting a wonder of the world, "This is Giulietta."
Romeo stuck the biscotto in his pocket. "I don't think so," he said. "She's wearing a diaper. — Anne Fortier

Stay away from stingy people. They are trapped in small souls. — Anne Fortier

Rule number three: Never assume. — Anne Fortier

Janice used to say that instinct was reason in a hurry; I was not so sure about the reason part. — Anne Fortier

In his usual fashion, Stalin had wholly denied the defeat; by refusing to take the bodies of his soldiers back, he had left it to the Finns to bury the men sent to destroy them. — Anne Fortier

To Hell with the cherub! roared Comandante Marescotti. — Anne Fortier

My consolation
is that, in one short month, you gave Paris more love than most people find in a lifetime. He was as happy as a man could be, he told me so himself. No grumpy old age for him, wondering why the pleasures of the world had passed him by. Although young, he had his fill, and he knew it. — Anne Fortier

Men always like to blame women for everything that goes wrong. Look at Adam and Eve. — Anne Fortier

You owe me nothing, but I want everything. — Anne Fortier

But then, as Myrina knew only too well, it is the loss of hope that kills the prey
the loss of will to keep struggling. — Anne Fortier

Here, we chop wood to keep warm. If you think that's amateurish, all I can say to you is this: You are more vulnerable than you think. — Anne Fortier

As a bird swoops down on it's prey, and assumes this land bound wretch into heaven, so did romeo steal her lips before they fled him again. suspended somewhere between cherubs and devils, his quarry ceased to buck, and he spread his wings wide and let the rising wind carry them off across the sky, until even the predator himself had lost every hope of returning home. within that one embrace, [he] became aware of a feeling of certainty he had not thought possible for anyone - even the virtuous. with her in his arms, all other women, past, present, and future, simply ceased to exist. — Anne Fortier

In no other place had I ever seen female purity celebrated by a 355-foot phallic object. But maybe that was me. — Anne Fortier

As you say, nature taunts us with our weaknesses.
Myrina took Klito by the shoulders, 'It is not a taunt, but a challenge. — Anne Fortier

What kind of woman agrees to a blind date at the top of a tower? And what kind of man spends his nights with a helmet on his head, visor closed, communicated with people via tennis balls? — Anne Fortier

In many ways, a degree in the history of ideas is the ideal training for an aspiring writer. — Anne Fortier

Did your patron specify a motif? Usually I do a standard Virgin Mary from the waist up, and in this case I will throw in Babe Jesus for free, since you have come all this way. — Anne Fortier

Exceptions are the exceptions, and finds are like ants; whenever you see one, you may be sure there are twenty. — Anne Fortier

She squared her shoulders against his charms. "It depends on who kisses me. I highly suspect a kiss from you would instantly void sixteen years of savings."
"What good are savings if you never spend them? — Anne Fortier

But he is an Italian," was Umberto's sensible reply. "He doesn't care if you break some law a little bit, as long as you wear beautiful shoes. Are you wearing beautiful shoes? Are you wearing the shoes I gave you? ... principessa?"
I looked down at my flip-flops. "I guess I'm toast. — Anne Fortier

But I was no philosopher, and the sun was beginning to let me know that it was the hour when only mad dogs and Englishmen exposed themselves to its rays. — Anne Fortier

Only weak men want women to be weak. — Anne Fortier

While at Oxford in 1999, I met Jonathan Fortier, who is a Montreal-born Canadian. Despite the challenges of a transatlantic relationship, we remained keen on each other and eventually married in 2002. — Anne Fortier

It's what we call a dolce pazzia ... a sweet madness. Once you feel it, you will never want to leave it. — Anne Fortier

I did not know my soul until I saw it's reflection in your eyes. — Anne Fortier

Why are we so eager to turn a beautiful myth into reality? I — Anne Fortier

What's rule number two?" Granny stopped, her hands on the back of a chair, and looked straight at me. "Always make sure," she said, slowly, to ensure I paid attention, "that they underestimate you. That is the key. — Anne Fortier

There are some things," he said softly, "that a princess has to do alone. — Anne Fortier

Come on! You were the one who told me I was Paris! Rich, handsome, and evil. Of course I want Juliet to test-drive me." He looked over and grinned, enjoying my scowl. "What kind of Paris would I be if I didn't? — Anne Fortier

She laughed out loud, a warm, knowing laughter that made me once again wonder about the secret ingredient in these women's lives. Whatever it was, I was clearly missing it. It was so much more than just self-confidence; it seemed to be the ability to love oneself, enthusiastically and unsparingly, body and soul, naturally followed by the assumption that every man on the planet is dying to get in on the act. — Anne Fortier

Knights don't cry."
"They certainly do," said the Comandante, taking the boy's hand, "but only when they are clean and dressed, and wearing shoes. Do you think you can wait that long?"
"I'll do my best. — Anne Fortier

A novel is, hopefully, the starting point of a conversation, one in which the author engages readers and asks that they see things from a different point of view than they might otherwise. — Anne Fortier

It is fifty percent what they see, and fifty percent what they think they see. — Anne Fortier

Was I insane? Maybe. But then, there were many different kinds of insanity. Aunt Rose had always taken for granted that the whole world was in a state of constantly fluctuating madness, and that a neurosis was not an illness, but a fact of life, like pimples. Some have more, some have less, but only truly abnormal people have none at all. This commonsense philosophy had consoled me many times before, and it did now, too. — Anne Fortier

Even as I pursued a doctorate in the history of ideas in my native Denmark, I realized I had neither the encyclopedic training nor the passion for cool logic - not to mention the nerve - to follow in the footsteps of classical liberal philosophers and economists such as Robert Nozick, Friedrich Hayek, and Milton Friedman. — Anne Fortier

Of course, I always knew I was Romeo, but I had never thought much about Giulietta before. Now I started thinking about her, and I realized that it was a very strange thing to be Romeo, when there is no Giulietta in the world. Strange and lonely. — Anne Fortier

Don't invite a girl on board if you don't have a six-pack antilock braking system. — Anne Fortier

I will say to you what the scientists say about the small particles in the universe: I can't show you where they are, I can only show you where they were. — Anne Fortier

Had always taken for granted that the whole world was in a state of constantly fluctuating madness, and that a neurosis was not an illness, but a fact of life, like pimples. — Anne Fortier

I think Shakespeare is everybody's treasure. — Anne Fortier

She had died peacefully, in her sleep, after an evening of listening to all of her favorite Fred Astaire songs, one crackling record after another. Once the last chord of the last piece had died out, she had stood up and opened the French doors to the garden outside, perhaps waiting to breathe in the honeysuckle one more time. — Anne Fortier

If you must, go and frolic with a herdsman under a starry, sky, but do not attempt to share his daylight. For the sun works on men as an elixir- it blears their eyes to the worth of women and makes them dare to think they should rule over us. — Anne Fortier

The Amazons is a stupendous achievement
a long-anticipated centerpiece in the great puzzle of humankind. The story of these forbidden women, silenced for so long by the rigidity of traditional scholarship, is as exciting and surprising as a bestselling murder mystery; I simply couldn't put it down. Through scholarly brilliance and passion, Adrienne Mayor has opened the door to a forgotten world of gender equality, and her book ought to be required reading in every college history course. — Anne Fortier

You can tease it's mane all you like, but you can't turn a house cat into a lion. — Anne Fortier

There is lust and then there is love. They are related, but still very different things. To indulge in one requires little but honeyed speech and a change of clothes; to obtain the other, by contrast, a man must give up his rib. In return, his woman will undo the sin of Eve, and bring him back into Paradise. — Anne Fortier

Think about it. He drinks poison. What kind of man drinks poison? She is the one who stabs herself with his dagger. The manly way. — Anne Fortier

Neeta showed us there can be as much virtue in the things we do not do as on those we do. — Anne Fortier

You are too kind, and I am unused to it. For your own sake, do not stroke my misery. It knows not how to respond, but with a vicious bite. — Anne Fortier

To me, there is only one God. An unnamed presence we'll never understand. Everything else is human politics. It was human beings who wrote the holy books, and human beings who made all the rules and rituals. In other words, it is human beings who turn life into hell. So yes'
he picked up his wine glass
'I try to live by the spirit of God, but not by the rules, because rules are made by man, and man is nothing but a fatally conceited flea on the mammoth of Creation. — Anne Fortier

Knowledge can be a dangerous thing - " "Not as dangerous as ignorance. — Anne Fortier

It put him in mind of the grand death of Julius Caesar, stabbed by a throng of Roman senators and dying very decoratively, scarlet on marble, harmoniously framed by columns. Would that some great Sienese could bring himself to die in a like manner, allowing the Maestro to indulge in the scene on a local wall. — Anne Fortier

I wish I had the power to flip my reality upside down like an hourglass, and that life wasn't a finite affair, but rather a perpetually recurring passage through a hole in time. — Anne Fortier

instinct was reason in a hurry; — Anne Fortier

Ask yourself this: Who is more amateurish, more vulnerable - those who rely on machines that need to be plugged in, or logged on, or in some other way connected in order to be more than a useless slab of plastic ... or those who have learned to master life without? — Anne Fortier

I should have never taught you girls to read! I suspect you have been reading the Bible behind my back-that is enough to fill a girl's head with folly? — Anne Fortier

I am sorry I didn't tell you the truth before. I was hoping I wouldn't have to. You kept asking about Romeo and what he was really like. I was hoping that" - he smiled wistfully - "you would recognize me. — Anne Fortier

Yes you may come." Paris held up a hand to delay Myrina's raptures. "But this time you will not be wearing my crown. You will be my slave, and believe me I shall enjoy ordering you around. — Anne Fortier

We have come here for revenge," Giulietta corrected him "and to gut that monster, Salimbeni, and string him up by his own entrails ... "
"Ahem," said Friar Lorenzo, "we will, of course, exercise Christian forgiveness - "
Giulietta nodded eagerly, hearing nothing. " ... While we feed him to his dogs, piece by piece! — Anne Fortier

The night belonged to the bold, to the crazed and to the artist
often one and the same — Anne Fortier

Paris shook his head.Do you think I would teach just anyone to fight me to the death? I want you to be my wife. My one and only wife. — Anne Fortier

Yself standing in front of Monticello wearing a veil and a wedding gown, hand in hand with a very muscular President Jefferson. — Anne Fortier

Giulietta pressed the letter against her heart. I know what you are thinking. You wish to protect me ... And you think Romeo will cause me pain. Great love, you believe, carries the seeds of great sorrow. Well, perhaps you are right ... but I should rather choose to have my eyes burnt in their sockets than to have been born without. — Anne Fortier

Everything has a shadow-side. In my opinion, that is what makes life interesting. — Anne Fortier

death turns all men into great lovers. Would that they were equally ardent while the lady was still alive! — Anne Fortier

The Salimbeni genes," I observed, rolling my eyes, "are yet again rearing their ugly head. Let me guess, if we were married, you would chain me in the dungeon every time you left the house?"
He considered it, but not for long. "I wouldn't have to. Once you get to know me, you will never want anyone else. And" - he finally put down the teaspoon - "you will forget everyone you knew before. — Anne Fortier

We are all cups, and our destiny is poured according to measures we cannot understand, cannot influence. — Anne Fortier

Remember: women may not be too weak
To strike a blow.
-Sophocles, Electra — Anne Fortier

Who knows, maybe there never was a curse. Maybe it was just us-all of us-thinking that we deserved one. — Anne Fortier

Alas, the world turned out so very different from the noble battleground she had led me to expect. The stakes were puny, the people gray and gutless; my Amazon arts were futile here. — Anne Fortier

Was I insane? Maybe. But then, there are many different kinds of insanity. Aunt Rose had always taken for granted that the whole world was in a state of constantly fluctuating madness, and that a neurosis was not an illness, but a fact of life, like pimples. Some have more, some have less, but only truly abnormal people have none at all. — Anne Fortier

If you want to keep the bad guys in check, make sure the good guys are armed. — Anne Fortier

Peppo!" I yelled, pulling at my cousin's suspenders. "I really don't want to be arrested, okay?"
"Don't worry!" Peppo turned a corner and accelerated as he spoke. "I go too fast for police! — Anne Fortier

Constancy is my true nature! I shall never look at another woman for the rest of my days, or rather, I shall look, but they shall be to me like chairs, or tables. Not that I intend to sit, of course, or eat off them, but in the sense that they are but furniture. — Anne Fortier

Juliet by Ann Fortier. The Maestro (Chapter5) ... the slight nausea he was feeling must be somewhat near what God was feeling every minute of every day. If indeed He felt anything. He was, after all, a divine being, and it was entirely conceivable that divinity was incompatible with emotion. If not, then the Maestro sincerely pitied God, for the history of mankind was nothing more than a long tale of tears. — Anne Fortier

Why must a woman always surrender? I am not prey!"
"No I am. Your arrow struck me long ago." Paris took her hand and placed it on his chest."Right here. And every time I try to pull it out." He used her hand to demonstrate. "You force it back in. — Anne Fortier

Romeo was cute ... "
"Cute?" Alessandro rolled his eyes. "What kind of man is cute?"
" ... and an excellent dancer ... "
"Romeo had feet of lead! He said so himself!"
" ... but most importantly," I concluded, "he had nice hands! — Anne Fortier

Only kings are put in writing, you know. Kings and heroes. The rest of us are but fading echoes in the valley of eternity. — Anne Fortier

I'm from Europe, and I was very aware that there are a lot of literature snobs - especially in Europe. As soon as something becomes a success, it has to be bad, and then they'll do everything they can to stab it to death. — Anne Fortier

I believe in blessings," he replied, against my temple, "I believe that for every curse, there is a blessing. — Anne Fortier

You were right and I was wrong. When life hurts more than death, it is not worth living. — Anne Fortier

Ever since childhood, I've been interested in history and myth. Not just the facts and figures of the past, but everything that contributes to shape our perception of an age: architecture, art, literature and so forth. — Anne Fortier

Careful!" warned Friar Lorenzo, trying to close the lid. "You know not what infection those lips carry! — Anne Fortier

But when he tried to pull the blanket from her shoulder, her hand shot out by reflex to close tightly around his wrist. At which Paris smiled and whispered, 'Don't fight me. Not tonight.'
Myrina slowly released his arm. 'It is only what you've taught me so well.'
He kissed her neck, right below the ear. 'Yes, but there is more.'
She closed her eyes, barely able to think. 'And what would you have me learn tonight?'
'The most important lesson of all.' He drew her tightly against him. 'To surrender with grace. — Anne Fortier

The Hawley Book of the Dead had me completely spellbound from beginning to end. A storytelling virtuosa, Chrysler Szarlan has woven a wondrous, scintillating web of suspense, love, history, and magic that will keep you eagerly turning the pages late into the night. Even readers not normally drawn to the supernatural will be swept away by this book; it has everything a great adventure should have-and so much more. — Anne Fortier

We are now left to choose between danger and regret, neither of which can restore the lives we have lost. — Anne Fortier

He is right. You have to feel it" - she reached out and touched a hand to my chest- "in here. — Anne Fortier

Look,' I said, struggling to keep up, 'I just wanna make one thing absolutely clear. I don't believe in guns. I just want peace. Okay?'
Alessandro stopped in the middle of the corridor, took out the gun, and wrapped my hand around it before I realized what he was doing. 'Can you feel that? That's a gun. It exists. And there are a lot of people out there who do believe in it. So, excused me for taking care of them so you can have your peace. — Anne Fortier

I must have you, completely, at my table and in my bed, or I shall waste away like a starving prisoner. There you have it; forgive the lack of poesy. — Anne Fortier

Personally, I am beginning to think death is mostly a matter of opinion. — Anne Fortier

I'll be back tomorrow," he said, "at nine o'clock. Don't open your door to anyone else."
"Not even my balcony door?"
"Especially not your balcony door. — Anne Fortier

Shush!" said Ambrogio to the dog, "I advise you to hide, in case it is the horned one trying to get in. I know him a great deal better than you. — Anne Fortier

I absolutely believe the past had its share of warrior women who fought like men. Whether some of these were the actual Amazons from Greek myth is another matter. — Anne Fortier

If you let go of me now," I whispered, stretching against him, "it could be another six hundred years before you find me again. Are you willing to take that risk? — Anne Fortier

He always says that those who control the present can rewrite the past. — Anne Fortier

In fact, I shall drink several, and perchance the wine will send me straight to Paradise that I may meet her in person and ... "
Friar Lorenzo sprung forward and hissed, for no apparent reason, "Before it throws you from grace, Messer Romeo, bridle your tongue!"
The young man grinned, " ... pay my respects. — Anne Fortier

We are the Amazons" said Myrina."We are the killers of beasts and men. Wild ourselves, we inhabit the wild places. Freedom courses in our blood, and death whispers at the tip of our arrows. We fear nothing, fear runs from us. Try to stop us, and you will feel our rage. — Anne Fortier