Deanna Quotes & Sayings

For the first time in ten years, the March family gathered to perform the Twelfth Night Revels for the village of Blessingstoke, just as they had done in Master Shakespeare's day. The dragon breathed fire while the Turkish Knight brandished his sword at St. George, and when it was finished, the resurrected saint and his sad dragon stood in tableau while the white-robed chorus, of which Portia and I made two, sang of the blood-berried holly and the sweetly clinging ivy. Rather like Brisbane and myself, I thought fancifully. Both evergreen and hardy, one sturdy, one tenacious, and forever undivided. But now there was a new little branch grafted to our union. — Deanna Raybourn

By the time I had gathered my wits sufficiently to press the point the lamps had guttered out and Brisbane was sleeping heavily fatigued by his effortshighly successful efforts I must confessto divert me from the investigation. I lay awake physically satisfied but deeply annoyed. Even after nine months of marriage I was still not entirely comfortable with my responses to his physical overtures. The merest touch from him and all reasonable though seemed to fly out of my head. It was most disconcerting and more so because he apparently knew it I thought irritable. — Deanna Raybourn

I think people are much the same wherever you go. Some of them good, some of them clever, and some of them with the devil in them. — Deanna Raybourn

I abhorred weakness of any kind but most particularly in my tea. — Deanna Raybourn

He considered that a moment, rolling the sweet over his tongue. There are times when it is entirely safe to show one's vulnerability, to roll over and reveal the soft underbelly beneath. But there are other times when pain must be borne without a murmur, when the pain is so consuming that if you give in to it, even in the slightest, you have lost everything. — Deanna Raybourn

Trust is not negotiable — Deanna Kimberly Burrell

I turned my face to the east and the first star that shimmered on the horizon. He held my hand, and it was the hand of the man I had married, lost and found again in the Badiyat ash-Sham, the fabled land of camels and caravans that lies just beyond the walls of the city of jasmine. To live with him would be a very great adventure indeed. — Deanna Raybourn

To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor. — Deanna Raybourn

She pounded a skinny red coffee stirrer against the restaurant table with the rat, tat, tat of a machine gun. — Deanna Chase

My skin tingled, and suddenly, Deanna materialized before us. I jumped. — Richelle Mead

You men have been forcing us to change our names for the last four thousand years. Why don't we switch it up? You lot can take our names for the next few millennia and see how you like it. — Deanna Raybourn

You have always been dazzling - the life of every party, the glamour girl who dances until dawn."
"Well, I am. But I'm dancing on broken glass. I'm Miss Havisham's wedding cake, Kit. A frothy, expensive, mice-eaten confection. I'm the Sphinx's nose, the fallen Colossus. I'm a beautiful ruin, and it's time that has done the deed. — Deanna Raybourn

When the wind is right and the cloud is gone, you can see down this road as far as Darjeeling," I told her. "But it is a long and difficult road, full of perils, and if a traveller on foot were to look at the length of it, his spirit would be overcome and he would sit down and refuse to go any further. You must not look to the end of the road, Portia. Look only to the step in front of you. That you can do. Just one step. And you will not make the journey alone. — Deanna Raybourn

I was reared to pay no mind to what folks looked like, but to what they had inside. Traits like integrity, kindness and respect are what makes up a person. — Deanna Edens

My face grew hot. "We were discussing the investigation," I told him quickly. "He was here a quarter of an hour at the most."
Father smiled at me sadly. "My dear girl, if you din't know what mischief can be gotten up to in a quarter of an hour you are no child of mine. — Deanna Raybourn

As a scientist I rebelled against the disorder, and I had long since discovered that nothing thwarted the mental processes like clutter. — Deanna Raybourn

She's upset."
"Screaming upset? or crying upset?"
"Does it matter?"
"Yes. There's a difference between being mad at a guy and being a teary mess over him. For example: Deanna is mad and can plot your destruction; I was a teary mess and could barely crawl out of bed every day. — Sylvia Day

They have different accents in America " Brisbane smiled. "Just as we do here." I waved a hand. "They all sound alike to me. — Deanna Raybourn

Is there any finer phrase in the English language than Midsummer Day? There are no words to touch it for conjuring. It is the beginning of blooming roses and ripening corn, of days that stretch on, reaching for midnight until the spangled blue velvet of night descends and beginning again before cockcrow, when the dew jewels the grass like diamonds scattered while the earth slumbers. I, of course, expected rain. Not just rain, but torrential, heaving, biblical rain - the sort to set arks afloat. Everything else had gone awry, why not that? But when I awoke on Midsummer Day, the sun greeted me cordially, coaxing the dew from the grass and the early roses as a light breeze wafted the scent of charred chimney over the gardens. I stood at the window and breathed in deeply all the scents of summer, fresh grass and carp ponds and blossoming herb knots until the whole of it mingled in my head and made me dizzy. A bee floated lazily in the window and out again as if beckoning me to follow. — Deanna Raybourn

She had stripped away her own illusions for him, and that was as seductive a thing as any woman could do. — Deanna Raybourn

I wore no jewels save the pendant Brisbane had given me with its secret code - the code that had given me my first inkling that he loved me. It had not been so very long since he had given it to me, a year only; twelve leaves of the calendar torn away, a few dozen weeks from then to now. But how much change that year had wrought! — Deanna Raybourn

Your Aunt Hermia will not thank you for attempting to poach her maid. Do not look to me for protection," he advised. "I have my hands quite full with one March lady. I could not rise to the challenge of taking on another. — Deanna Raybourn

Aunt Nell used to say it was not decent to have violet eyes, that they were a telltale sign of bad nature, like ginger hair or a hunchback. — Deanna Raybourn

Julia, we are all children at Christmastime."
"You are not," I pointed out.
He gave me a shadowy smile. "I think you told me once I was born old. — Deanna Raybourn

To walk away from something is only half the picture. What are you walking towards? — Deanna Raybourn

The reason for the peculiar name could be found in the whimsical sense of humor of the early colonists who arrived on Deanna several decades in the past and found very little at all there to laugh at. Obsidian Crows might seem funny at first, unless you just happened to ride over one with your Jeepo five miles out of town and didn't have a spare tire. Although there was a reasonable expectation of hitting one of these diminutive brutes on the roads, this did not happen nearly as often as you might think. — Christina Engela

If you were a man, your ladyship, I would cordially horsewhip you for that remark. — Deanna Raybourn

She had the face of a chocolate box Madonna and larceny in her heart. — Deanna Raybourn

A full lifer doesn't commit to anyone until they've committed to her — Deanna Kizis

You must engage in horizontal refreshment. It isn't healthy to congest oneself like that. — Deanna Raybourn

I am not trapped," Deanna said sharply, surprised and worried by the turn of the conversation. Kelly was so self-possessed that it was sometimes difficult to know what was going on in her mind. "I love you all. I live here and help with money because I choose to, because it makes me happy. I'd be miserable if I just up and left you in the lurch. — Noelle Adams

Kelly," her grandmother said, "The Pride needs to be dusted." Deanna and Kelly looked at each other. "The Pride" was a collection of Mrs. Beaufort's dead Siamese cats, all professionally stuffed by a taxidermist to preserve them. They were prominently displayed in the parlor, along with a host of other family treasure including china and costumes from their Beaufort forebears. — Noelle Adams

And yours? What is your opinion? Truly?" She turned to face me, her green eyes brilliant in the lamplight. "Would it matter?"
"No. I love him and, damn the world, I will have him."
She grinned. "Good girl. And since my opinion doesn't matter, I give it freely: Brisbane is worth twenty Marches and dearer to me than most of my own brothers. If you do not marry him, I will do so myself, simply to keep him in the family."
I turned away quickly. "Are you weeping?" she asked.
"Don't be absurd." My voice was muffled and I swallowed, blinking furiously. "I have a cinder in my eye." Portia dropped a swift kiss to my cheek. "Happiness is within your grasp now, pet. Hang onto it, and do not let it go, whatever you do. — Deanna Raybourn

Are you afraid of dying?"
"I was at first, maybe I still am a little bit. But it's not death that scares me so much as not being alive anymore. It's missing all the things that I would have seen if I hadn't gotten AIDS. Things like my daughter's graduation, her wedding, my grandchildren. I'll never see those things, and that makes me sad. — Deanna Lynn Sletten

It seemed a very great folly to attempt to force a declaration from him, but it seemed a greater folly to let him go. If there was a single chance at happiness with him, I was determined to seize it. — Deanna Raybourn

He smiled again. "Your reputation undoubtedly precedes you."
I bristled. "I am not that curious!"
"You are curious as any cat, my love ... — Deanna Raybourn

I put my hands on my hips, not caring if I sounded like a Billingsgate fishwife. "Yes, it was a dangerous thing to do, but as it seems to have escaped your attention, I remind you I am above thirty years of age, of sound body and mind, and in control of my own fortune. That means," I said, moving closer still, poking his chest for emphasis, "I am mistress of myself and answer to no one. — Deanna Raybourn

The hardest lesson I had learnt upon my travels was patience. There are times when every muscle, every nerve, screams for movement, when every instinct urges escape. But the instinct to fly is not always a sound one. There are occasions when only stillness can save you. — Deanna Raybourn

The men stood back, chanting a song of one who would not be forgotten, of loved ones lost and returned to the earth, and of the land itself which does not die but is always born anew with each fall of the long rains. They chanted of life, which is short as a spear of summer grass or long as the heart of the Rift itself, and of the silent land that waits beyond. — Deanna Raybourn

When the light has fled but the stars have not yet shown themselves. That is the gloaming, the loveliest and saddest hour of the day. — Deanna Raybourn

I reached up to press a kiss to his cheek. "Do not be too angry with Father. He did not mean it not really."
"Angry? I feel rather sorry for him. We are kindred spirits," he observed with a wry twist of his mouth.
"How so?"
"We both suffer because you will not understand how utterly essential you are to our happiness. — Deanna Raybourn

He smiled. "I think a blonde. Anything with black hair has always been trouble for me. — Deanna Raybourn

Who Do You Turn To? By Sydney Baker

When you've lost all of your hope,
Who do you turn to?
When your heart turns black because of
The torture that you have been forced to face,
Who do you turn to?
When you find yourself trapped in your mind,
Drowning in a pool of sorrow,
Who do you turn to?
I do not know the answer to these questions,
Seeing that I am still trying to figure them out myself,
But I'm asking you.
So, when you've lost all hope.
And your heart is black because of the pain you've been faced with.
And you're trapped and drowning in your dark, clouded mind.
Who do you turn to? — Deanna Frances

When I was a little girl, I got 'Time' magazine every week, and I wanted my face on the cover, but I've changed a lot since then. — Deanna Dunagan

I had a vision of you, the first time I stepped into Grey House, the night Edward died. That was why I kept staring at you while he lay on the bed, convulsing between us. I had seen you standing before me, your hand in mine. I could not hear what was said between us, but there was a sense of belonging to you, as if I had always known you somehow, and you had been waiting for me. It came as rather a nasty shock to realise you were already married. — Deanna Raybourn

Portia countered with something cutting and I left my sisters quarrelling over the details whilst I mooned about, waiting for a letter from Brisbane. While Olivia had wanted a smart town wedding, the rest had mercifully overruled her and decided I would be married from the church of St. Barnabas in Blessingstoke, the village nestled at the foot of our family seat at Bellmont Abbey, surrounded by friends and family. — Deanna Raybourn

I know. Of course I know that. It is just that the calamities do seem to be piling up," I said, shivering a little as a goose walked over my grave.
Brisbane pinned me with a look. "You said once you would follow me to the ends of the earth in a white petticoat to be my wife, if that is what it took."
I pursed my lips. "You were not supposed to hear that. You were unconscious."
"Did you mean it?" I held that striking black gaze with my own. "You must know I did."
"That is why I know you will be there tomorrow, whatever calamities may come. As I will be." I looked down at the soaked, sooty gown. "I may have to wear a white petticoat, if it comes to it." Brisbane gave me a slow smile. "I wish you would. The sooner I can get you into just your petticoat - " "Ah, Brisbane! Good of you to come, my lad," Father said, rousing himself from his reverie. "Did you hear, we nearly lost poor old Crab. — Deanna Raybourn

After a moment, he turned sharply to me. 'Are you quite all right?'
'Yes, perfectly. Why do you ask?'
'Because I have just called you contrary and you did not bother to contradict me. I thought you might be ill. — Deanna Raybourn

There is always beauty to be found, even in the darkness. — Deanna Herrmann

God made me a singer, and I just sang. — Deanna Durbin

Oh, yes. I mean to marry him. But not because I want him to give me a life. I want to marry him to share the life I already have. The difference, I think you will find, is a significant one. — Deanna Raybourn

Dove smiled in satisfaction. "Something I picked up in the south of France. It's the purest jasmine from Grasse, which makes it very special indeed."
"Why?" Evie sniffed again. The scent was rich and sensual, curling against her like a cat and warming itself on her skin.
"Child, jasmine is one of the most seductive scents imaginable, and the stuff from Grasse is the finest in the world. In the little village where I collected that, the farmers won't even let their nubile daughters walk through the fields when the flowers are ripe for fear they won't be able to control themselves."
"I can see why," Evie murmured. The heavy fragrance was intoxicating, and she felt like someone entirely new. — Deanna Raybourn

She rose suddenly and put out — Deanna Raybourn

She is wrong, you know. What you do is important. You save people," I told him, pressing my lips to the half-moon scar high upon his cheekbone. "You saved me." His arm tightened about my waist and we stood for a long moment, wrapped in each other. — Deanna Raybourn

I would kiss the ground where your shadow fell just to be near you. — Deanna Raybourn

We can't settle for pieces from a man. We can't trade our happiness and self-respect for the opportunity to be held, cuddled and given tenderness. we can't give ourselves away for the words we want to hear if there's no action behind them. We deserve a healthy man who can make us happy. We can't stop remembering: "All men are jerks until proven otherwise." Until he proves otherwise, we can't get too caught up in his "goodies". — Daylle Deanna Schwartz

I'm tired of playing little girls. I'm a woman now. I can't run around forever being the Little Miss Fix It who bursts into song. I want to get out of Hollywood and get a fresh approach. — Deanna Durbin

At first Deanna guessed the person was a guy, a college kid whose jaw was still stubbornly smooth, but as the figure straightened Deanna caught the soft hint of breasts under the shirt. Suddenly she could see the thick frame of lashes around a pair of amber eyes, and the feminine curve to lips tugged into a wide and rueful grin. Deanna hastily tacked several years onto the stranger's age: not a kid at all, but someone closer to her own twenty-six. Deanna — Michelle Osgood

Life was always a risk. Everything about it. — Deanna Roy

Aunt Dove stepped behind her and looked at her reflection in the cheval glass. You haven't been to India, pet, but in the Nilgiri Hills, there's a flower called a kurinji flower. It doesn't bloom often. In fact, you can go a dozen years or more without seeing a single blossom. But then, just when you've given up hope of ever seeing one, they burst into flower, whole mountainsides at the same time, carpeted in the most astonishing shades of purple. It's as if God himself shook out a rug of petals and spread it at your feet. It's unexpected and magnificent, and very much worth the wait. — Deanna Raybourn

To know how a character will behave in any given situation is a necessity and a gift. — Deanna Raybourn

Apparently, he uses disguises sometimes in the course of his investigations. In his liaison with Mariah, he used them for discretion. He came to her once dressed as a chimney sweep. Quite invigorating, don't you think? — Deanna Raybourn

I think of myself as a singer. The acting is just something I have to do between songs. — Deanna Durbin

Even though you weren't born to us, you grew in our hearts. We will be forever connected because love is what makes a family. — Deanna Kahler

The cigarette hung unlit from his lips. Was he doomed to roam forever in his ghost state, always wanting to light that cigarette? A small twinge of satisfaction rolled through me at the thought of him in permanent nicotine withdrawal. — Deanna Chase

At least she was creative. Whoever heard of an angel calling a coven leader a magic-stealing twat waffle? — Deanna Chase

After all, I might not intend to use him for a plaything, but I could still appreciate looking through the toy-shop window. — Deanna Raybourn

I'd had my heart broken, you see. Fell in love with the wrong chap and he crushed me right down to the bedrock. Nothing left but humiliation. — Deanna Raybourn

In my experience it is far better to tell a man what he wants to hear then do as you please, than attempt to reason with him. — Deanna Raybourn

I may not read tea leaves or palms, my lady, but it is easy enough to read faces. Yours is a questioning face, always looking for answers, always seeking the truth, for yourself and for others." I smiled at her. "I think that is a very polite way of saying I am curious as a cat. And we all know what happened to the cat - curiosity killed her." Rosalie took the last slice of cake onto her plate. "Yes, but you forget the most important thing about the little cat," she said, giving me a wise nod. "She had eight lives left to live. — Deanna Raybourn

I work on drawing as a final product. — Deanna Petherbridge

A woman could love a jackass. She could not love a son of a bitch. Many have tried, Gideon. Many have tried. — Deanna Raybourn

O, the perfidy of men." "What have I done?" he protested. "Nothing at present, but you are the only representative of your sex I have at hand to abuse. Take your lumps for your brothers. — Deanna Raybourn

I will make arrangements for you and Portia to return to London the following day. I will be closing up the house. I am leaving England for a while." "For how long?" I asked him, determined to keep my composure. "Until I am quite recovered from you," he said evenly. "When will you return?" "Never. — Deanna Raybourn

Yet this tree, for all that it seemed a patch of darkness past understanding, fascinated me. — Deanna Skaggs

I never got my Hogwarts letter. - Deanna H. — Rachel Fershleiser

Just when she thought she had it all figured out something happened to test her faith or alter her view of reality. — Deanna Kahler

Did you mean what you said? You will pursue this?'
Brisbane sipped at his tea. 'I suppose. I have a few other matters that I must bring to conclusion, but nothing that cannot wait. And I have no other clients questioning either my integrity or my courage at present. — Deanna Raybourn

She's another Deanna Durbin,' [Harry] Cohn said, 'except that she can't sing. — Gene Tierney

Darla shook her head, a small smirk on her lips. "You're such a mom," she told Katherine.
Katherine stared at her, puzzled. "You're a mom, too," she said softly.
"No, I gave birth. That doesn't make me a mom. Not like you."
A look passed between the two women like none they had ever shared before. For a split second, Katherine felt a slight connection. "Well, you rest. I'll check on you later." She turned and left the room, a funny, unexplainable feeling inside her. — Deanna Lynn Sletten

I went to stand next to him, and he gave me his hand, warm and strong. "I am sorry I kept you waiting," I murmured. "I have waited for you the whole of my life," he replied softly. "What is another minute more? — Deanna Raybourn

A tiny smile played over his lips as he glanced down at my hand. "Do you mean to win me over with feminine wiles? I must admit it is a more diverting notion than your usual method of screaming at me like a fishwife."
I did not rise to the bait. I simply looked at him. "Please."
He caught his breath, a slow smile warming his features. "My god, you are trying to seduce me."
"I am not." I said primly. "I am merely trying to get your attention."
He bent swiftly and kissed me hard, pulling back so suddenly I nearly toppled over. "I believe I have already made it quite clear you have my attention. — Deanna Raybourn

I would have appreciated the satisfaction of a carnal paroxysm - in my experience, they bring a sparkle to the eye as well as brightness to the complexion and a spring to the step - but using Stoker to achieve that end was a means I could not begin to contemplate. — Deanna Raybourn

Should I be in distress? In a meadow? You mean if the cows organize some sort of attack? I have extensive experience with cows. They almost never do that." "Forget — Deanna Raybourn

The earth is over a million years old; respect your elders. — Deanna Anderson

How embarrassing would that be to be found dead, naked in your bathroom, in a pile of Honey Dust? — Deanna Chase

Yeah, I'll believe that the day you give up your lip balm."
I gasped. "Never. Without it my lips feel naked and alone." (Charity Rising) — DeAnna Kinney

Etta gave Will a small, knowing smile. Will, sometimes you have to love people for who they are, not who you want them to be. — Deanna Lynn Sletten

A person who reads lives more than one life, but that means that they die more than once as well. — Deanna Vasquez

Now I was more certain than ever of my decision. I could not love a man who did not love Jane Austen. — Deanna Raybourn

Brisbane and I passed a thoroughly satisfactory and entirely private evening in the solitude of our room. "Thank God for stout stone walls," he said at one point, and I heartily agreed. — Deanna Raybourn

Most of philosophy is institutionalized mansplaining. — Deanna Havas

Deanna's prime business was mining Lantillium, which was used to line blaster emitter barrels and the cores of warp engines (and to a lesser degree, to line the special coffee cups and jugs used to serve Hot Stuff Blend). — Christina Engela

Fate is by far the greatest mystery of all. — Deanna Raybourn

Have you not yet learned that it is easier to pull a star down from the heavens than to bend a woman to your will? — Deanna Raybourn

Only you mattered in that moment. Only you. And I would have done anything to save you. I would have paid any price committed any sin sold my very soul to do it. — Deanna Raybourn

Coming from West Texas at the time that I did, I didn't know you could be an actor. It didn't seem like something that actually happened. — Deanna Dunagan

But this month is all about CITY OF JASMINE which I hope you already have in your hot little hands. My favorite review snippet? KIRKUS REVIEWS said it's "part screwball comedy".
I can't tell you how much time I spent with Carole Lombard and William Powell and Irene Dunne when I was writing it. I adore the 30s comedies for their light-hearted take on relationships and adventure - and the glamorous settings and occasional dash of intrigue only heighten the magic. (Did you know that Nicholas Brisbane from my Lady Julia series was named for THE THIN MAN's Nick Charles? And apologies to Dashiell Hammett, but I fell in love with the film long before I read the book and appreciated how much it had been lightened in the adaptation!) So when you're reading CITY OF JASMINE, give some thought to who you'd like to see playing Evie and Gabriel - I'd love to hear who you'd cast in your own production. — Deanna Raybourn

life is like love it sucks but the good times warm your heart — Deanna Petrie

Before I could ask, he caught sight of the garment in my hand. "In the name of bleeding Jesus, what are you sewing? Is that my shirt?" "It is, and I must say, it is in a deplorable state. But at least the material is quite good and will stand up to proper mending. Unfortunately, mending is not one of my skills," I said, holding up the shirt. Somehow I had managed to attach it to my own skirt, and I took up scissors to snip it free. — Deanna Raybourn