Gina Marinello-Sweeney Quotes & Sayings

The starry night sky echoed across my thoughts, the expanse of my own void filtered in its quiet solitude. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

They whirled around in the light dance of a duchess entering a ball - majestic yet understated - a spiraling splash of purity of color that took shape under nature's watch. A newly-sculpted garden burst forth, glistening in an afternoon sun. It welcomed the dusty pink rose, who stood beside its fellows, basked themselves in their own serenity of white, triumphant red, or cheery yellow. It swayed in the breath of a wind, caressing each and becoming more. It was a mixture of quiet and thunderous, light and dark, shyness and boldness. It was a mixture of the quiet strength and overwhelming courage that the human soul might wish to one day possess. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

In airy breaths I fly anew
Uncontained by earth or mortal coil
I remain free, as if in distant land
Circling on and on without false step
Breathless, I glide, a maiden swept
In the wonder of ice-capsuled chandeliers
Laughing without reserve or fear
Touched by the vibrant glow
Of a treasure chest
Sought and found. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Icy pillars of serenity, spun from airy mist, entered my quiet vision in echoes of worlds unknown. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

It mingles in seas of carousels
It becomes the past and knows it not. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

It is the littlest of flowers that fly the farthest ... That have the courage to fly the farthest. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

St. Catherine of Siena once said, 'If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze.' But," I turned to him urgently, "how can I even light a single candle if someone blocks off the first step? — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

The college bookstore was a splash of life, culture, and society. As a psychology student, I often found myself intrigued by the behavior, ways of thinking and feeling, and general schemata of others, and this was the perfect spot to engage my senses.
Other times, I was just annoyed. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Peter kept the same pace that I did, even though I knew that I helplessly dragged my feet. The image of a doctor guiding an invalid grudgingly entered my mind. Yet there was a companionable silence as we trudged onward. My mind was still half vacant, but I felt safe. And, although our hands did not touch, I felt as if they did. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

And the shower of roses spun around me, inviting me to take part in their ever-present waltz. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

There is a host of angels surrounding you, Rebecca. Not figuratively. Literally. With wings spread far to encompass you, protect you with their Light. Remember that they are with you - see them with your heart and soul - whenever you are forced to engage in battle with forces that seek and have become, through their own will, evil. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

He's convinced that you're a psycho," I explained, as I reached the bench. "He has the list narrowed down to either a double agent or a serial killer. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

A girl locked in a tower with no life experience. But, you know, Rebecca ... this isn't a fairy tale. Your tower will never protect you from the darkness outside."
"And your tower will always be a prison," I said softly. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

And, together, the two soft forms, overlapping yet distinct, were like misty wings of silence, exquisitely-spun and spread full, surrounding our Lord in graceful symphony. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

I sat down, turning the pages of my notebook in search of a blank page, in the dim light of my room. The arrival of nightfall had invited leafy shadows to play hide and seek in the glass reflection of the window. I smiled as one of these mischievous shadows crept across the page in a midnight dance. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

That," Adriana said, "is a puzzling mystery that must be solved. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

A poem must be authentic. It could be flowery, it could have the most brilliant metaphor, it could be bursting with onomatopoeia and alliteration, assonance and consonance, hyperbole and paradox, from every end, it could have daring syntax and clever cacophony, it could have a neat and ordered rhyme scheme ... but, if it loses its authenticity, its ability to convey the very heart and soul of the poet, then all the euphony and cacophony in the world cannot make up for the loss of its identity as a poem. And that is the true cacophony. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Battle scars were not a commodity that I was accustomed to selling, least of all to myself. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

He had not been tossed aside by time, but lost in it. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

A fleeting moment of bliss filling your existence with ecstasy, only to fade with the dimming light.
No, I could not believe that. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

It was a gaze that held the comfort of familiarity. There was no mystery, no enigmatic depth, but unrestrained length, the length of years - the laughter of childhood games and Christmas carols of home - lining its pathways with simple, yet easily overlooked, understanding. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

They own a shop of exotic jam. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

The Eternal Smiler strode forth, handing her one, as well. I considered the psychology behind her smile and formed the conclusion that, despite its obvious coating of pleasantry, it was an understandable psychological decision. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Odd is a compliment," he continued, his eyes twinkling, "whereas weird is an insult. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

A coldness, nearly tangible due to its extreme weight, was perceptible the instant I entered the room. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

But I was caught in an hourglass of colliding dreams. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

A few days earlier, Adriana and I had been browsing books at the local library. I happened to turn around and look at her ... and that was it. The man who "loved to laugh" in Mary Poppins had nothing on us. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Inspiration doesn't always come in chronological order. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Yes, it is," I whispered, "and one day the spell will not cause you to forget it. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Caution: Danger ahead. Do not refer to Adriana as little in regards to either her age or stature. If you happen to disregard this most basic of laws, approach with caution. Much, much caution. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Let the violin become a fiddle, boy. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

It's more than a feeling," I whispered to the darkness of my room, "and ... even more than a choice. It is a conviction. And a mystery. A beautiful, beautiful mystery. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

I stared back at her, my eyes leveled with hers in inscrutable certainty. For a moment, our eyes remained engaged, unflinching and impenetrable, as the shrill, steady call of a siren ran across the street outside, mixing with the effervescent glow of traffic lights and a steady pitter-patter of pedestrian feet sauntering across the street in wakeful gait. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

The fleeting moment became Whole. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

There is nothing more nerve-racking than waiting as someone reads your writing. The reader becomes the videographer, zooming far, far into your heart and soul, unveiling every inch and corner. The writer remains a wary observer at the mercy of the reader, clueless as to how he might react. The writer is exposed, laid bare; her innermost thoughts and feelings are revealed in a potentially scathing moment of vulnerability. I trusted Peter so fully ... in a way that I could not explain. For that very reason, it mattered so immensely. To actually tell him what I knew he had already often seen in my eyes was to allow him to enter a new dimension in that world. And it mattered. It really, truly mattered. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

He wished to be more like the sea. He wished to know its wisdom, its peace. He wished to know the legend that it spoke. The legend that soared far beyond legends. The Legend that spoke Truth. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

You were...are...what I heard. Every note. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

And yet the great blue sky was above me and my eyes thirsted for its words. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Then I guess," she said, "you like to be vexed. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

And, as I had gazed at my surroundings, at the muted, yet triumphant, colors splashed in joyful serenity over the immaculate stone floor, at the profiles of my fellow parishioners bent in prayer, and finally, up above, at the flickering lights held in a soft gray ceiling like chandeliers in an ancient palace, I realized that my thoughts had been transferred to Someone Else. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Once again, she speaks in another language when things get awkward. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Like dandelions they flew across the expanse
Of desert calm without advance
They filtered through the stilled "become"
Returning to the land they knew.
They knew no more than where they flew.
And so they gathered, one and all,
And scattered it throughout their path.
Only golden-shafted majesty could still their might.
And so they flew onward, without a path. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

My mother once told me as a child that you can tell who is coming by the mere sound of their footsteps. I remember looking at her incredulously, my short curls bouncing in agreement with my dissent. Yet, upon her departure, I heard in her footsteps the essence of Mom. Ever since, I would know who was approaching down the hall of our home without prior visual identification.
And the footsteps I heard at the entrance of the bookstore carried the vague echo of a memory that promised dread. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Maturity is so often considered to be synonymous with 'adult.' But I truly feel that maturity may be defined by the ability to be both an adult and a child. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

There is an unspoken pact between best friends that stipulates the following:
To induce laughter, all you have to do is look at your partner-in-crime - even in the absence of said crime. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

The adventurer became the storyteller ... and then the Sentinel of the Sea. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Raindrops lingered in a melody of remembrance cast from the heavens above as I myself cast aside the dryness of the present day. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

For a moment, perhaps an hour, they would wait, wait for something, and when that waiting was over, it was simply dismissed, goodbyes stated, reading materials closed, a momentary pause in the day that did not hold up to whatever came next.
Waiting was often a resented gift, imparted to those who accepted it grudgingly in the hopes that something better would come along when the gift was tossed aside, boxed away for the next recipient. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

No magnetic wombats, no flying hyenas, no catfish masquerading as samurai, and, MOST CERTAINLY, no Duku jam! — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Knowledge can be powerful. But it can only be beautiful if there is more to it. If it is guided by something greater than the simple desire to enhance the potency of the mind. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

I heard the waves tumbling in a chorus of doves, inviting me to take part in their vision. A vision from Beyond. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Can a rose survive in winter? — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

At the intermission," I whispered, "we must leave. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Many a year I told her tales. And then the time came for me to watch. And watch I have. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

It was a walk, it was a chase, it was a symphony of time. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Two years could change so much under the facade of changing nothing at all. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

She nodded, golden curls beaming in their flight, as she continued her drawing, absolutely absorbed. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

I told my imagination to discontinue communication with my thoughts. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

All those who are in love may appear to be quite silly. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

He tasted Truth, a truth that he could not put into words. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Parking complexes are like modern-day dungeons. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

The luminescent flow of a sunbathed garden - illuminating the shifting colors of its inhabitants - echoed in my memory as I opened the antique bookstore door in the shaft of window light.
The books, like the flowers of the garden, awaited me with the thrill of a new mystery. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

The only way that your work will truly find an audience is if it is genuine. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Rebecca, we live in a world where darkness seems, in the minds of many, something banished to the world of fairy tales and superhero movies. How surprising it then becomes - even for those of us who believe otherwise - that it may appear in our own lives, in our own battles. To face an opponent that is more than the average 'jerk,' who has made a deadly choice, is, let us admit it, nothing that we expect to experience. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

No, thank you," he flashed that grin of his. "I've been wondering what the lair of a poetry-inclined psychologist looks like. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

The last time I checked, I wasn't the one who tripped over a glass container of sugar that I had myself dropped ... after, of course, having received several bruises from an attempt to retrieve a flip-flop that had somehow ended up in the sink. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

He knew. There was no need for small talk. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Those who find something in I Thirst, who can relate to a project so close to my heart, instantly become a sort of "friend." Whenever people come to me and tell me that they appreciated I Thirst or thank me for writing it, I feel that I have done something right
not because I am one of the greats, but because the story spoke to them in some way, in a way that perhaps was universal but uniquely their own all the same. I put out my story, but the readers made it their own. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Or, maybe what really mattered was that game of Crazy 8s. — Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Have you ever felt like you were caught in a maze in which nothing made sense? In which you saw Superman and the Green Goblin in the same comic strip when they really belonged in two different stories? — Gina Marinello-Sweeney