Kelly Gardiner Quotes & Sayings

Disappointment has a horrible taste - I've never liked it myself - the way it burns on the tongue like sulphur and turns your belly to acid. I — Kelly Gardiner

Everything is clear to me - outline, details, future, emotion. Not like the world, where everything is muddy and messed, and nothing ever works out the way you mean it to - no matter how skilful or how honourable you are, no matter how vile your enemy. When — Kelly Gardiner

In their arrogance lies my strength. One — Kelly Gardiner

I don't fear the silence. I take it into me like air. I hear the music within it. But — Kelly Gardiner

I'm the way I am because this is how God made me - God and my own father - and that is how I will die. — Kelly Gardiner

The strength comes only from your mind. Fingertips. Wrist. Thighs. Brain. These are your weapons. The sword is merely a beautiful accessory. — Kelly Gardiner

The fencing masters adjust your pose, your wrist, just as singing masters try to rearrange your throat and tongue, as concert masters order the notes, the cadence. I've had many masters. I hear their voices. I don't need to, anymore, but they still speak to me, through me. Always. — Kelly Gardiner

Your only enemy is fear, — Kelly Gardiner

my lovers had only ever tended to their own needs. I didn't know that romance and sex were different creatures - one of the soul, one of the body. I had no idea that two souls can feel as if they are joined in one body, as it were, no matter the shape of the bodies involved. Clara — Kelly Gardiner

slowly, mile after mile, I unwound the bandages, let my wounds, my scars, crust over. They didn't heal. But I learned to live with them, as you do. Learned how to move, talk, ride, sing, so that the pain wasn't visible — Kelly Gardiner

In one sense. I prefer to be alone. No. That's not true. There are a few people - five, at most - with whom I could happily spend days at a time. Otherwise I've always been a creature of solitude. Not an outcast - not always. But I am not at home as part of a throng, the way some people are. The — Kelly Gardiner

All of my books are acts of subversion disguised as historical fiction. — Kelly Gardiner

I don't care what he thinks - I don't care what you think. My sins are clear enough to me. I have my own commandments. Thou shalt not break the heart of the one you love (though you could argue I learned that a little too late for it to be useful). Thou shalt not diminish thy life for fear of the wrath of men. Thou shalt not curb thy tongue. And, of course, thou shalt never wear satin in the rain if thou can help it - ruins the fabric. — Kelly Gardiner

Yet most women I know - no matter how clever, no matter how strong - are dragged down by husbands or fathers or titles or too many petticoats, or priests clutching at their hems, telling them, 'No, you cannot do that, you cannot be that.' I never listened. That's rare. Even a woman like the Comtesse pretends to pay attention to the sermons and the instructions, but then does whatever she wishes. I — Kelly Gardiner

She does not acknowledge hatred. A waste of time. Life — Kelly Gardiner

There are some scars we carry that nobody ever sees. I believe that. Do you? We all have them, I'm sure. Sins that can never be forgiven. Hurts that will not heal. Pains that plague us in the dark hours - that mark our souls forever. And scorch our hearts? — Kelly Gardiner

For years I believed they loved me for my voice, my stage presence, my courageous life. 'Incomparable,' they said. 'Divine.' I am the goddesses on the ceilings of the antechambers at Versailles, the statues in the gardens. That's what they see in me. The huntress. The peacemaker. The Amazon. The Muse. Victory. Glory. War. I am divine. But now I wonder if I was anything more than some exotic creature in the King's pleasure gardens - not a lion, and surely not a baboon, but perhaps - yes - a giraffe. Unlikely. Ungainly. Unique. Beautiful in parts but not particularly attractive as a concept. Alien. But compelling, nevertheless. — Kelly Gardiner

I didn't notice it in those early years - I thought I was surrounded by people who wished me nothing but good. I heard the whispers and shrugged off the notoriety, the half-hidden glances and smirks. I — Kelly Gardiner

There's so much need in the world. It turns my heart to granite. They are beggars out there, every one of them - from the crippled soldier crying on the corner to the street sellers and crooks and landlords. The bewigged crowd is no different. Better dressed, but desperate nevertheless. Especially at the palace. It's pathetic, really. I — Kelly Gardiner

My father used to say, 'Never let your guard down, never turn your back.' Never — Kelly Gardiner

The truth of an orchestra is heard when they try to find their common notes before the show. All those strings and tubes and odd plunking things straining in different directions; an orchestra is merely a mob of single-minded maniacs who every so often condescend to work together, and then, mostly, they soar - they ascend - they give us wings.

Then they finish and bow and grumble and stomp off to their grotty little hovels muttering to themselves. Honestly, music is a miracle. You have no idea. — Kelly Gardiner