Philippa Gregory Quotes & Sayings

Perhaps there is a God like firelight, but all we can see is the shadows that we cast ourselves when we walk in front of the fire. Then we see great leaping shadows and think that this is God, but really it is only our own image. — Philippa Gregory

I don't want to help, I want to hinder. I adore your hair, I like to see it loose. — Philippa Gregory

God speaks to us individually, each and every one of us, that we need neither pope nor priest, nor bleeding statue, to find our way to faith. God is calling and we only have to listen. There are no clever tricks to forgiveness. There is only one way and there is only one Bible, and a woman can study it as well as a man. — Philippa Gregory

When a woman thinks her husband is a fool, her marriage is over. They may part in one year or ten; they may live together until death. But if she thinks he is a fool, she will not love him again. — Philippa Gregory

The Duke of Clarence, the king's beloved brother George, is beside him looking like a true York prince, golden-haired, ready of smile, graceful even in repose, a handsome dainty copy of my husband. He is fair and well made, his bow is as elegant as an Italian dancer's, and his smile is charming. "Your Grace," he says. "My new sister. I give you joy of your surprise marriage and wish you well in your new estate. — Philippa Gregory

I am in the interesting position of being sometimes skimmed by the critics and called literature and sometimes called historical fiction. — Philippa Gregory

One never gets the same summer twice. — Philippa Gregory

We're going' Anne said firmly.
So soon?' Percy pleaded. 'But stars come out at night.'
Then they fade at dawn', Anne replied. 'This star needs to veil herself in darkness. — Philippa Gregory

She's like an anchor that he has forgotten, but still it keeps him steady. — Philippa Gregory

of the palace to inform me that Lady Margaret — Philippa Gregory

Never see them again. Surely, a couple so young, so — Philippa Gregory

I felt his hardness and I suddenly understood-an older girl would have understood long before-that this was the currency of desire. He was my betrothed. he desired me. I desired him. All I had to do was tell him the truth. — Philippa Gregory

I have to say that I am much less impressed by crucifixion now that I am in childbirth. It is really not possible that anything could hurt more than this. I grieve for the suffering of Our Lord, of course. But if He had tried a bad birth He would know what pain is. — Philippa Gregory

I love reading and I love thinking - the reason that I love my books so much is that in order to write them I have to read and to think for years at a time about the same period of time. — Philippa Gregory

I would rather see you dead at my feet than dishonored. — Philippa Gregory

Nobody gets to be Queen of England by being loveable. You will have to play your cards right. — Philippa Gregory

When we lay awake after making love I could hear the sleepy birds settling in their nests in the thatch. We had a little pallet bed, a table and two stools, a fireplace where we warmed up our dinner from the palace, and nothing more. We wanted nothing more. — Philippa Gregory

Ah, my dear. Sometimes God takes the most precious children to his own. — Philippa Gregory

But a good man wouldn't marry you for fortune, and perhaps you shouldn't choose such as one as that."
"Shouldn't I?"
"A good man would marry you for love." he says simply. — Philippa Gregory

Wealth means nothing at all if you do not know, to the last penny, what your fortune is. You might as well be poor if you do not know what you have. — Philippa Gregory

We are not ordered by God to judge each other. We are not even ordered by him to consider another person's sin. We are ordered by God to let Him consider it, to let Him be judge. — Philippa Gregory

Eyes downcast, she went past me without a glance. Dismissively her gown brushed my knees as if I should have drawn further back, out of her way, as if everyone should always step back to let Anne through. Then she was gone and as I looked up I met the Queen's eye. She looked blankly at me as I might look at a rivalry of birds fluttering in a dovecote. It was not as if it mattered. They would all be eaten in time. — Philippa Gregory

I would play ball with Catherine, and hide and seek: Not a very challenging game in an open meadow, but she was still at the age where she believed that if she shut her eyes and buried her head under a shawl then she could not be seen. — Philippa Gregory

Anyone can attract a man. The trick is to keep him. — Philippa Gregory

You will have to reconcile yourself, as I do, as Isabel does, to being the defeated. — Philippa Gregory

I am a woman who makes things happen, and I am not defeated yet. I am not defeated by a boy with a newly won crown, and no man will ever walk away from me certain that he won't walk back. — Philippa Gregory

Funny sky,' he said, squinting up at the thick-bellied white clouds and the sun shining so hot on them but not breaking through.
'It feels as if there should be a storm,' I said 'but it was like this at haymaking and the weather never properly broke then.'
'If I was at sea I should run for a port,' Ralph said. He was looking towards the horizon where there was a yellow tinge to the sky over the top of the downs. — Philippa Gregory

I would not care whether people thought I was special, if my life was truly special. It would not mater to me that people could see me as pious, if I could truly live as a woman scholar of piety. I want to be what I seem to be. I act as if I am specially holy, a special girl; but this is what I really want to be. I really do. — Philippa Gregory

He is a young man with a future of power and opportunity and we are young women destined to be either wives and mothers at the very best, or spinster parasites at the worst. — Philippa Gregory

A woman who loved him would have to learn obedience, and I was not yet ready to be an obedient wife. — Philippa Gregory

I prayed in silence that perhaps even now, the queen might have a son and might know joy like this, such a strange, unexpected joy- the happiness of caring for a child whose whole life was in my hands. — Philippa Gregory

I raised my hand to wave in case he looked back; but he did not. He rode straight backed, looking forward. He rode like a Howard. We never look back. We have no time for regrets or second thoughts. If a plan goes awry we make another, if one weapon breaks in our hands, we find a second. If the steps fall down before us we overleap them and go up. It is always onwards and upwards for the Howards; and my father was on his way back to court and to the company of the King without a backwards glance for me. — Philippa Gregory

This is the greatest — Philippa Gregory

Because she is my sister, and therefore one-half of me. — Philippa Gregory

What am I to do, what can any woman do, when her husband is such a fool as to desire a woman for a moment, rather than the woman he is pledged to for eternity? — Philippa Gregory

The baby should always be saved in preference to the mother. That is the advice of the Holy Church, you know that. I was only reminding women of their duty. There is no need to make everything so personal, Margaret. You make everything into your own tragedy. — Philippa Gregory

I never thought it would end like this. I never thought he would leave me without saying goodbye. — Philippa Gregory

When they launch snakes you'll have your namesake. — Philippa Gregory

That's how it is for women," I said, stung into honesty. "It's not what one would choose - I grant you that. But women are the very toys of fortune. — Philippa Gregory

Ah, Hannah, you have never longed to live as I long to live if you do not know that another day is the most precious thing. — Philippa Gregory

Though the leaves fall from the trees like brown tears, for him everything must be as green as fresh grass, as white as May blossom, as if to convince us all that the seasons are upside down and we are all Tudors now. A — Philippa Gregory

window, with Rig trotting — Philippa Gregory

Her sadness had given her a serenity which had not been there before. It was as if she had learned a hard lesson: that chances in life would not fall into her lap like ripe cherries. — Philippa Gregory

But young hearts mend easily, and hearts that own half of England have something better to do than to beat faster for love. — Philippa Gregory

He could not have got through the Sierra Nevada if she had not been sending him men and digging teams to level the road for him. No one else could have driven a road through there. He would have trusted no one else to support him, to hold the kingdom together as he pushed forwards. She could have conquered the mountains for no one else; he was the only one that could have attracted her support. What looked like a remarkable unity of two calculating players was deceptive - it was their passion which they played out on the political stage. She was a great queen because that was how she could evoke his desire. He was a great general in order to match her. It was their love, their lust, which drove them; almost as much as God. — Philippa Gregory

Jane," I said quietly.
She opened her eyes, she had been far away in prayer.
"Yes, Mary? Forgive me, I was praying."
"If you go on flirting with the king with those sickly little smiles, one of us Boleyns is going to scratch your eyes out. — Philippa Gregory

It's not a question of wanting to be queen; it's not even a question of wanting honorable love anymore. I am mad for him, I am madly in love with him. I would go to him if I had to walk barefoot. Tell me I am one of many. I don't care! I don't care for my name or for my pride anymore. As long as I can have him once more, that's all I want, just to love him; all I want to be certain of is that I will see him again, that he loves me. — Philippa Gregory

I feel very strongly that history has mostly been written by men, and even when it is not prejudiced against women it is dominated by a male perspective and male morality. Some of my heroines have been considered simply unimportant - like Mary Boleyn or Katherine Howard - and some of them have been stereotyped - like Anne of Cleves and Katherine of Aragon. I don't start with a determination of putting the record straight, but when I read terribly prejudiced misjudgments of women I cannot help but consider what they would really have been like - and writing them back into the history. — Philippa Gregory

I cannot know what the future will bring us," he says in a rapid undertone. "I cannot know where you will be given in marriage, nor what life might hold for me. But I can't let you go without telling you
without telling you at least once
that I love you."
I snatch a breath at the words. "Woodville
"
"I can offer you nothing; I am next to nothing, and you are the greatest lady in France. But I wanted you to know, I love you and I want you, and I have done since the day I first saw you."
"I should
"
"I have to tell you, you have to know. I have loved you honorably as a knight should do his lady, and I have loved you passionately as a man might a woman; and now, before I leave you, I want to tell you that I love you, I love you
" He breaks off and looks at me desperately. "I had to tell you," he repeats. — Philippa Gregory

She can speak three languages, but she can tell the truth in none of them. — Philippa Gregory

Why not?' She asks the most challenging questions that a woman can ask. 'Why should I not read? Why should I not think? Why should I not speak? — Philippa Gregory

Ideas are more dangerous than an unsheathed sword in this world, half of them are forbidden, the other half would lead a man to question the very place of the earth itself, safe at the center of the universe. — Philippa Gregory

Anne gave a little giggle. 'Oh what a tragedy Queen! You can smile while your heart is breaking because you are a woman, and a courtier and a Howard. That's three reasons for being the most deceitful creature on God's earth. — Philippa Gregory

I have learned the power of surviving. — Philippa Gregory

Her confidence is extraordinary, her impertinence unforgivable, her words terribly true. — Philippa Gregory

He knew as well as I did that you cannot release a girl from her promise to love a man. She either gets herself free or she is bound for life. — Philippa Gregory

we will put the Howards so high they can never fall. — Philippa Gregory

We are both people of faith," he said quietly. "Our enemies should be the people who have no faith, neither in their God, nor in others, nor in themselves. The people who should face our crusade should be those who bring cruelty into the world for no reason but their own power. There is enough sin and wickedness to fight, without taking up arms against people who believe in a forgiving God and who try to lead a good life. — Philippa Gregory

The most powerful men of the kingdom have dragged a duchess down and sent her out to be a marvel to the common people of London. They are so deeply afraid of her that they took the risk to dishonor their own. They are so anxious to save themselves that they thought they should throw her aside. — Philippa Gregory

To stop us reading forbidden books they will have to burn every manuscript. But to stop us thinking forbidden thoughts they will have to cut off our heads. — Philippa Gregory

You have to sit with your longing and know that you may not get what you want; you have to encounter the danger of longing for something without the expectation of getting your desire. — Philippa Gregory

I would be very, very uncomfortable at teaching, at dreaming to teach, people things. — Philippa Gregory

She smiles. "You know you can do nothing. What will be, will be. If there is a battle" - I gasp but her smile is steady - "if there is a battle, then either your husband will win, and your son will take the throne; or your brother will win and you will be sister to the king. — Philippa Gregory

Distance, looking out of the window. "You are in love?" I ask. "You must know it," he says in a whisper. I hardly dare think. He must mean me; he must be about to declare his love for me. But I swear if he is talking about someone else I shall just die. I can't bear him to want someone else. But I keep my voice light. "Why should I know it?" "You must know who I love," he says. "You, of all people in the world." This conversation is so delicious I can feel my toes curling up inside my new slippers. I feel hot; I am certain I am blushing and he will be able to see. "Must I?" "The king will see you now," announces the idiot Dr. Butt, and I jump and start away from Thomas Culpepper, for I had utterly forgotten that I was there to see the king and to make — Philippa Gregory

Good Evening , Sir John. I hope that you will accept a little gift from me.'
I should be honored, Your Majesty.'
I want to give you a little carved stool from my privy chambers. A pretty little piece from France. I hope you will like it.'
I should be grateful.'
It is for your daughter. For Jane. To sit on. She seems not to have a seat of her own but she must borrow mine. — Philippa Gregory

I realize that I can laugh, that it is possible to be happy, that laughter and hope can come back to me. — Philippa Gregory

We stood for a moment, handclasped in the warm sunshine, and I thought, like a lovesick girl: This is heaven. — Philippa Gregory

I had meant my promise to George. I had said that I was, before anything else, a Boleyn and a Howard through and through; but now, sitting in th shadowy room, looking out over the gray slates of the city, and up at the dark clouds leaning on the roof of Westminster Palace, I suddenly realized that George was wrong, and that my family was wrong, and that I had been wrong
for all my life. I was not a Howard before anything else. Before anything else I was a woman who was capable of passion and who had a great need and a great desire for love, I didn't want the rewards for which Anne had surrendered her youth. I didn' want the arid glamour of George's life, I wanted the heat and the sweat and the passion of a man that I could love and trust. And I wanted to give myself to him: not for advantage, but for desire. — Philippa Gregory

A parcel
taken from one place to another, handed from one owner to another, unwrapped and bundled up at will
is all that I am. A vessel, for the bearing of sons, for one nobleman or another: it hardly matters who. — Philippa Gregory

I have to tell you, you have to know: I have loved you honorably as a knight should do his lady, and I have loved you passionately as a man might a woman; and now, before I leave you, I want to tell you that I love you, I love you - — Philippa Gregory

We have no time for regrets or second thoughts. If a plan goes awry we make another, if one weapon breaks in our hands we find a second. If the steps fall down before us we overleap them and go up. It is always onward and upward — Philippa Gregory

I say nothing, not one word, from beginning to end, and neither does he. If it were lawful for a woman to hate her husband, I would hate him as a rapist. — Philippa Gregory

Margaret ... you must know that you could never change your own life. You are a girl: girls have no choice. You could never even choose your own husband: you are of the royal family. A husband would always have been chosen for you. It is forbidden for one of royal blood to marry their own choice. You know this too. And finally, you are of the House of Lancaster. You cannot choose your allegiance. You have to serve your house, your family, and your husband. I have allowed you to dream, and I have allowed you to read, but the time has come to put aside silly stories and silly dreams and do your duty. — Philippa Gregory

If it means something to you,then take it to heart. If it means nothing, it means nothing, let it go. — Philippa Gregory

She flashed me a quick black glance and then her dark eyelashes swept down on her cheeks. 'Not me,' she said 'I make my own plans. I don't risk being taken up and dropped again.'
'You told me to risk it.' I reminded her.
'That was for you,' she said 'I would not live my life as you live yours. You would always do as you were bid. I am not like you. I make my own way. — Philippa Gregory

We all had parts to play, we all had costumes to wear, we all had to be as merry as we could be, for the King was always laughing this winter and the Queen never stopped smiling. — Philippa Gregory

When I was first at court and he was the young husband of a beautiful wife, he was a golden king. They called him the handsomest prince in Christendom, and that was not flattery. Mary Boleyn was in love with him, Anne was in love with him, I was in love with him. There was not one girl at court, nor one girl in the country, who could resist him. Then he turned against his wife, Queen Katherine, a good woman, and Anne taught him how to be cruel. — Philippa Gregory

The more that I learn, the more sure I am that I have very much to learn ... — Philippa Gregory

I would know you anywhere for my true love. Whoever I was and whoever you were, I would know you at once for my true love. — Philippa Gregory

She was a woman whose spirit had been hammered and forged until she could only ring true. Compared with the rest of us sho was silver, while we were pewter, a common of lead and tin. — Philippa Gregory

All this is always for nothing," he says. "Don't you understand that yet? Every death is a pointless death; every battle should have been avoided. But if Edward can defeat the queen, and imprison her along with her husband, then it will indeed be over. — Philippa Gregory

I am too dark in my heart tonight. — Philippa Gregory

I love going to London for a couple of days but I need to be in the country. I like the silence, the smell and the seasonal changes, especially in spring and summer. I really feel that I belong there. — Philippa Gregory

When he told me that he would fight forever, I knew that he would have to be defeated. — Philippa Gregory

her beauty completely erased by jealousy. — Philippa Gregory

She poured me a cup of coffee and I drank it standing by the back door, looking out of the back garden. I felt it scald my tongue but it did not warm me. It was heavy with sugar but it did not taste sweet. I gave a little sigh. There are some days when nothing seems right. — Philippa Gregory

Do you really think that God in his heaven with all the angels, there from the beginning of time and looking towards the day of judgement day, really looks down on all the world and see's you and little harry and says 'whatever you choose to do is my will?'
"Yes i do." she says uncertainly. — Philippa Gregory

of the ancient cities of Greece and — Philippa Gregory

I would never lie to anyone about history. — Philippa Gregory

She tried to live like an ordinary woman, but some women cannot live an ordinary life. — Philippa Gregory

Men command the world that they know . Everything that men know they make their own. Everything that they learn, they claim for themselves. They are like the alchemists who took for the laws that govern the world, and then want to own them and keep them secret. Everything they discover,they hug to themselves: they shape knowledge into their own selfish image. What is left to us women but the realms of the unknown? — Philippa Gregory

You have to have faith that you are doing God's will. Sometimes you will not understand. Sometimes you will doubt. But if you are doing God's will, you can't be wrong, you can't go wrong. — Philippa Gregory

He was such a happy boy, and happiness is not memorable. — Philippa Gregory

I've just written out the death certificate,' the doctor said cheerfully. 'Natural causes of course. She was eighty-eight. I think it was the Beaujolais Nouveau, I warned her not to drink it after Christmas but she was always stubborn. I'll send the undertakers around later. But they won't be able to fit her for at least a couple of days. She'll be all right there as long as it doesn't get too hot. — Philippa Gregory

They say that at the mountain pass he looked back at his kingdom, his beautiful kingdom, and wept, and his mother told him to weep like a woman for what he could not hold as a man. — Philippa Gregory

And those people like my grandmother, who are so free with their insults and their slaps, who say that it is a tremendous honor and a fine step up for a ninny like me, might well consider that a fool can be jumped up, but a fool can also be thrown down; and who is going to catch me then? — Philippa Gregory

I think that all of them must have lost their minds and have forgotten everything we were to each other. I said that they were no sisters to me, that I would forget them. But they have gone further than this: they have become my enemies. — Philippa Gregory

Before God, I love you and cherish you more than anything in the world. Of course I want to marry you. I love you heart and soul. — Philippa Gregory

Go with the knowledge that I will think of you every time I lift your boy from his bed, every time I kneel for my prayers, every time I order my horse, every hour of every day. — Philippa Gregory

Have learned that the most precious thing is a place where you can be as you are, where someone can see you as your true self. — Philippa Gregory