Gabaldon Quotes & Sayings

There's always a prayer, a nighean, even if it's only A Dhia, cuidich mi. Oh, God - help me. — Diana Gabaldon

didn't look it. And — Diana Gabaldon

The Indian was a gentleman named Sequoyah, somewhat older than the young Wilsons and their friends. He nodded soberly to Jamie, and swinging the bundle off his shoulder, laid it on the ground at Jamie's feet, saying something in Cherokee. — Diana Gabaldon

Thought of blowing your brains out?"
William blinked, startled.
"No."
"That's good. Anything else is bound to be an improvement, isn't it? — Diana Gabaldon

Where did you learn to kiss like that?" I said, a little breathless. He grinned and pulled me close again.
"I said I was a virgin, not a monk," he said, kissing me again. "If I find I need guidance, I'll ask. — Diana Gabaldon

Venemous," Jamie corrected him. "If it bites you and makes ye sick, it's venemous; if you bite it and it makes ye sick, it's poisonous. — Diana Gabaldon

But a man is not forgotten, as long as there are two people left under the sky. One, to tell the story; the other, to hear it. — Diana Gabaldon

A fine coaching inn there - though not much else. Dougal looked surprised — Diana Gabaldon

My parents would take my sister and me out for dinner now and then, and while waiting for the food to be served, would point out the oldest, most harried looking waitress in the place, saying sternly, Be sure you get a good education, so you don't have to do that when you're fifty! — Diana Gabaldon

While most people became irritable when hungry, a redheaded person with an empty stomach was a walking time bomb. — Diana Gabaldon

Your face is my heart Sassenach, and the love of you is my soul — Diana Gabaldon

With no Law to regulate their Behavior save Self-interest, though, plainly there is Nothing to prevent an irregular Militia from becoming more of a Threat to the Citizenry than the Dangers from which it offers to preserve them. — Diana Gabaldon

I'm not sure that religion was constructed with time travelers in mind." Buck's brows rose at that. "Constructed?" he echoed, surprised. "Who builds God? — Diana Gabaldon

There is nothing more delightful in life than a feather bed and an open fire - except a feather bed with a warm and tender lover in it. — Diana Gabaldon

That's how ye do it,' his brother Ian had told him ... 'Ye find a way to live for that one more minute. And then another. And another ... But after a time, ye find ye're in a different place than ye were. A different person than ye were. And then ye look about and see what's there with ye. Ye'll maybe find a use for yourself. That helps. — Diana Gabaldon

Claire's hands moved when she talked, rising long and white in the air, as though she would catch the future between them and give it shape, would hand Jamie her thoughts as she spoke them, smooth and polished objects, bits of sculptured air. — Diana Gabaldon

TWO DOWN," Roger whispered. — Diana Gabaldon

I would not piss on him was he burning in the flames of hell," Grey said politely.
One of Hal's brows flicked upward, but only momentarily.
"Just so," he said dryly. "The question, though, is whether Fraser might be inclined to perform a similar service for you."
Grey placed his cup carefully in the center of the desk.
"Only if he thought I might drown," he said, and went out. — Diana Gabaldon

A bit more than that, I expect." For the first time, the young man took his eyes off Roger, shifting his glance to one side. Following the direction of his gaze, Roger felt a jolt like an electric shock. He hadn't seen the man at the edge of the clearing, though he must have been there all the time, standing motionless. He wore a faded hunting kilt whose browns and greens blended into the grass and brush, as his flaming hair blended with the brilliant leaves. He looked as if he'd grown out of the forest. Beyond — Diana Gabaldon

Did the ancient Gaels not wear undergarments?" Frank leered. "You've never heard that old song about what a Scotsman wears beneath his kilts? — Diana Gabaldon

What a mystery blood was
how did a tiny gesture, a tome of voice, endure through generations like the harder verities of flesh? He had seen it again and again, watching his nieces and nephews grow, and accepted without thought the ehoes of parent and grandparent that appeared for brief moments. the shadow of a face looking back through the years
that vanished again into the face that was now. — Diana Gabaldon

Madam," he said, speaking very softly into her face. "I do not want your money. My wife does not want it. And my son will not have it. Cram it up your hole, aye? — Diana Gabaldon

He didn't speak for a bit, but his weight drew me closer, like a moon pulled near to its planet. I lay quiet, my hand on him, my hip against his - flesh of his flesh. — Diana Gabaldon

Strength of bone and fire of mind, all wrapped around a core of steel-hard purpose that would make him a deadly projectile, once set on any course. — Diana Gabaldon

Men have external genitalia, while women have internal genitalia. This simple difference makes a lot of difference in how they write about themselves - and how you might write about your characters. Male writers don't often address internal sensation in a character, because they don't experience it (and probably often don't realize consciously that it's there). This accounts for a lot of Really Terrible sex scenes written by men (if you look at the "Bad Sex-Scene Awards" in any given year, you'll see that the vast majority are done by male writers). — Diana Gabaldon

And suddenly it was all simple. He held out his arms to her. She stepped into them and found that she had been wrong; he was as big as she'd imagined - and his arms were as strong about her as she had ever dared to hope. — Diana Gabaldon

He reached out a long arm and drew me in, holding me close against him. I put my arms around him and felt the quiver of his muscles, exhausted, and the sheer hard strength still in him, that would hold him up, no matter how tired he might be. We stood quite still for some time, my cheek against his chest and his face against my hair, drawing strength from each other for whatever might come next. Being married. — Diana Gabaldon

date at the top of the page was May 16, 1753. — Diana Gabaldon

I hold no evil in my heart ... This evil does not touch me. More may come, but not this. Not here. Not now. — Diana Gabaldon

Jamie ... I only want to be where you are. Nothing else. — Diana Gabaldon

The sharp scents made my throat ache. I had been up such hillsides before, and smelled these same spring scents. But then the pine and grass scent had been diluted with the smell of petrol fumes from the road below and the voices of day trippers replaced those of the jays. Last time I walked such a path, the ground was littered with sandwich wrappers and cigarette butts instead of mallow blossoms and violets. Sandwich wrappers seemed a reasonable enough price to pay, I supposed, for such blessings of civilization as antibiotics and telephones, but just for the moment, I was willing to settle for the violets. I badly needed a little peace, and I felt it here. — Diana Gabaldon

Oh, many and many a time," he whispered. "When I saw you. When I took ye, not caring did ye want me or no, did ye have somewhere else to be, someone else to love. — Diana Gabaldon

People will treat with disdain such phenomena as are proved by the evidence of the senses, and commonly experienced - while they will defend to the death the reality of a phenomenon which they have neither seen nor experienced. — Diana Gabaldon

My own eyes went to Jamie, who had come to join Fergus and Ian by the sideboard. Still here, thank God. Tall and graceful, the soft light making shadows in the folds of his shirt as he moved, a fugitive gleam from the long straight bridge of his nose, the auburn wave of his hair. Still mine. Thank God. — Diana Gabaldon

I thought the force of my wanting must wake ye, surely. And then ye did come ... " He stopped, looking at me with eyes gone soft and dark. "Christ, Claire, ye were so beautiful, there on the stair, wi' your hair down and the shadow of your body with the light behind ye ... ." He shook his head slowly. "I did think I should die, if I didna have ye," he said softly. "Just then. — Diana Gabaldon

He smelt strongly of woodsmoke, blood, and unwashed male, but the night chill bit through my thin dress and I was happy enough to lean back against him. — Diana Gabaldon

Jamie's face, already drawn and grim, grew somewhat grimmer at this question. The completest of landlubbers, he was not just prone to seasickness, but prostrated by it. He had been violently ill all the way from Inverness to Le Havre, though sea and weather had been quite calm. Now, some six hours later, safe ashore in Jared's warehouse by the quay, there was still a pale tinge to his lips and dark circles beneath his eyes. — Diana Gabaldon

I could feel the heat glowing from him, with that sudden rise of temperature which presages falling asleep in very young children. — Diana Gabaldon

Two hundred years from now, she had - I will? she thought wildly - stood in front of this portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, furiously denying the truth that it showed. Ellen MacKenzie looked out at her now as she had then; long-necked and regal, slanted eyes showing a humor that did not quite touch the tender mouth. It wasn't a mirror image, by any means; Ellen's forehead was high, narrower than Brianna's, and the chin was round, not pointed, her whole face somewhat softer and less bold in its features. But the resemblance was there, and pronounced enough to be startling; the wide cheekbones and lush red hair were the same. And around her neck was the string of pearls, gold roundels bright in the soft spring sun. — Diana Gabaldon

Why?" I shrieked, hitting him again and again, and again, the sound of the blows thudding against his chest. "Why, why why!".
Because I was afraid!" He got hold of my wrists and threw me backward so I fell across the bed. He stood over me, fists clenched, breathing hard.
I am a coward, damn you! I couldna tell ye, for fear ye would leave
me, and unmanly thing that I am, I thought I couldna bear that!"
~~~~~~~~~
You should have told me!"
And if I had?, You'd have turned on your heel and gone without a word. And having seen ye again--I tell ye, I would ha' done far worse than lie to keep you!"
Voyager — Diana Gabaldon

Why, what's the matter wi' the poor child?" she demanded of Jamie. "Has she had an accident o' some sort?"
"No, it's only she's married me," he said, "though if ye care to call it an accident, ye may. — Diana Gabaldon

Nay, he needs a woman, not a girl. And Laoghaire will be a girl when she's fifty. — Diana Gabaldon

You don't forget. You simply get to the point where you don't care what birth will feel like; anything is better than being pregnant for an instant longer. I'd reached that point roughly two weeks before my due date. The date — Diana Gabaldon

He laughed. "Yeah, all right, I see," she said. "Mmm. Why did you have to mention tomatoes? I used the last of the dried ones last week, and — Diana Gabaldon

It was very quiet here on the mountainside,
but, quiet in the of hills and forests. A quiet that wasn't silent at all, but composed of constant tiny sounds. It was small buzzing in the gorse bush nearby, of bees working the yellow flowers -dusty with pollen, far below was the rushing of the burn, a low note echoing the wind above stirring leaves and rattling twigs sighing past the jutting boulders. — Diana Gabaldon

Murtagh was right about women. Sassenach, I risked my life for ye, committing theft, arson, assault, and murder into the bargain. In return for which ye call me names, insult my manhood, kick me in the ballocks and claw my face. Then I beat you half to death and tell ye all the most humiliating things have ever happened to me, and ye say ye love me." He laid his head on his knees and laughed some more. Finally he rose and held out a hand to me, wiping his eyes with the other.
"You're no verra sensible, Sassenach, but I like ye fine. Let's go. — Diana Gabaldon

There was another reason. The main one."
"Reason?" I said stupidly.
"Why I married you."
"Which was?" I don't know what I expected him to say, perhaps some further revelation of his family's contorted affairs. What he did say was more of a shock, in its way.
"Because I wanted you." He turned from the window to face me. "More than I ever wanted anything in my life," he added softly. — Diana Gabaldon

Oh, aye, Sassenach. I am your master ... and you're mine. Seems I canna possess your soul without losing my own. — Diana Gabaldon

Reading is of course dry work, and further refreshment was called for and consumed. — Diana Gabaldon

It was in a way a comforting idea; if there was all the time in the world, then the happenings of a given moment became less important. — Diana Gabaldon

Besides, what would you do with the body, if you killed him? the logical side of my mind inquired. He wouldn't fit in the cupboard, let alone the hidey-hole. — Diana Gabaldon

He turned to face the assembled clansmen, raised his arms and greeted them with a ringing shout. "Tulach Ard!" "Tulach Ard!" the clansmen gave back in a roar. The woman next to me shivered. There was a short speech next, given in Gaelic. This was greeted with periodic roars of approval, and then the oath-taking proper commenced. — Diana Gabaldon

Ye're mine, Sassenach. And I would do anything I thought I must to make that clear. — Diana Gabaldon

That's what he got for neglecting his work to go on wild-goose chases to impress a girl — Diana Gabaldon

Incongruous that he laughed. And then realized that there — Diana Gabaldon

He wanted to ask whether she were insane, but he had been married long enough to know the price of injudicious rhetorical questions. — Diana Gabaldon

But for the hours of the night, I was helpless; powerless to move as a dragonfly in amber. — Diana Gabaldon

Damn! Blazing Hades! That filth-eating son of a pig-fart! — Diana Gabaldon

The rest of the journey passed uneventfully, if you consider it uneventful to ride fifteen miles on horseback through rough country at night, frequently without benefit of roads, in company with kilted men armed to the teeth, and sharing a horse with a wounded man. At least we were not set upon by highwaymen, we encountered no wild beasts, and it didn't rain. By the standards I was becoming used to, it was quite dull. — Diana Gabaldon

Christ, was he going to die in public, in a pleasure garden, in the company of a sodomite spy dressed like a rooster? — Diana Gabaldon

I can bear pain myself, he said softly, but I couldna bear yours. That would take more strength than I have. — Diana Gabaldon

Ye ken how to pick a good lass, MacKenzie? Start at the bottom and work your way up! — Diana Gabaldon

It was the first breath of the new moon, but the whole of it was visible, a perfect ball of violet and indigo cupped in a sickle of light, luminous among the stars. — Diana Gabaldon

I finished grating a root and dropped the stub into a jar on the desk. Bloodroot is aptly named; the scientific name is Sanguinaria, and the juice is red, acrid, and sticky. The bowl in my lap was full of oozy, moist shavings, and my hands looked as though I had been disemboweling small animals. — Diana Gabaldon

If a ship's coming in from a port known to have plague of some kind, the damned Hollanders make the sailors swim ashore naked. — Diana Gabaldon

Perhaps it was only that the sense of reaching out to something larger than yourself gives you some feeling that there is something larger - and there really has to be, because plainly you aren't sufficient to the situation. — Diana Gabaldon

I don't plot the books out ahead of time, I don't plan them. I don't begin at the beginning and end at the end. I don't work with an outline and I don't work in a straight line. — Diana Gabaldon

Testosterone poisoning, — Diana Gabaldon

For a long time," he said at last, "when I was small, I pretended to myself that I was the bastard of some great man. All orphans do this, I think," he added dispassionately."It makes life easier to bear, to pretend that it will not always be as it is, that someone will come and restore you to your rightful place in the world."
He shrugged.
"Then I grew older, and knew that this was not true. No one would come to rescue me. But then-" he turned his head and gave Jamie a smile of surpassing sweetness.
"Then I grew older still, and discovered that after all, it was true. I am the son of a great man."
The hook touched Jamie's hand, hard and capable.
"I wish for nothing more. — Diana Gabaldon

To take responsibility for the welfare of others made me feel less victimized by the whims of whatever impossible fate had brought me here, — Diana Gabaldon

Once I told him I thought beating your son was a most uncivilized method of getting your own way. He said I'd about as much sense as the post I was standing next to, if as much. He said respect for your elders was one of the cornerstones of civilized behavior, and until I learned that, I'd better get used to looking at my toes while one of my barbaric elders thrashed my arse off. — Diana Gabaldon

Exposure to a two-year-old boy was probably the best possible object lesson in the dangers of motherhood, — Diana Gabaldon

As usual in such matters, God's sense of humor trumped all imagination. — Diana Gabaldon

What he felt, though, was the echo of her flesh, and the reverberations of their farewell, with all its doubts and pleasures. — Diana Gabaldon

In defense of King, country, and family, he would unhesitatingly have sacrificed his virtue to Nessie, had that been required. If it was a question of Olivia marrying a man with syphilis and half the British army being exterminated in battle, versus himself experiencing a "personal interview" with Richard Caswell, though, he rather thought Olivia and the King had best look to their own devices. — Diana Gabaldon

He wiped the sweat from his face on his sleeve, squared his shoulders, and strode back into the fray. All there was to do was his duty. — Diana Gabaldon

I asked. I was quiet then, letting him come to terms with it. — Diana Gabaldon

When you hold a child to your breast to nurse, the curve of the little head echoes exactly the curve of the breast it suckles, as though this new person truly mirrors the flesh from which it sprang. — Diana Gabaldon

Aye, I believe ye, Sassenach. But it would ha' been a good deal easier if you'd only been a witch. — Diana Gabaldon

One dictum I had learned on the battlefields of France in a far distant war: You cannot save the world, but you might save the man in front of you, if you work fast enough. — Diana Gabaldon

You forget the life you had before, after awhile. Things you cherish and hold dear are like pearls on a string. Cut the knot and they scatter across the floor, rolling into dark corners never to be found again. So you move on, and eventually you forget what the pearls even looked like. At least, you try. — Diana Gabaldon

He's a man...and that's no small thing to be. — Diana Gabaldon

Could I but lay my head in your lap, lass. Feel your hand on me, and sleep wi' the scent of you in my bed.
Christ, Sassenach. I need ye. — Diana Gabaldon

I was having trouble with the scale of things. A man killed with a musket was just as dead as one killed with a mortar. It was just that the mortar killed impersonally, destroying dozens of men, while the musket was fired by one man who could see the eyes of the one he killed. That made it murder, it seemed to me, not war. How many men to make a war? Enough, perhaps, so they didn't really have to see each other? — Diana Gabaldon

It was uncivilized to use physical force in order to make your point of view prevail. — Diana Gabaldon

He was generally aware that he had been blessed in her beauty; even in her usual homespun, knee-deep in mud from her garden, or stained and fierce with the blood of her calling, the curve of her bones spoke to his own marrow, and those whisky eyes could make him drunk with a glance. Besides, the mad collieshangie of her hair made him laugh. — Diana Gabaldon

Conflict and character are the heart of good fiction, and good mystery has both of those in spades. — Diana Gabaldon

For your sake, I will continue - though for mine alone ... I would not. — Diana Gabaldon

Why d'ye talk to yourself?" "It assures me of a good listener, — Diana Gabaldon

You are mine, always, if ye will it or no, if ye want me or nay. Mine, and I willna let ye go — Diana Gabaldon

A friend once told me 'The body has nay conscience.' I dinna ken that that's entirely so-but it is true that the body doesna generally admit the possibility of nonexistence. And if ye exist-well, ye need food, that's all. — Diana Gabaldon

They say it's a wise bairn that kens its father, but I dinna think there's much doubt who yours is, lass. Ye might have had the lang nebbit and red locks from anyone, but ye didna get the stubbornness from any man but Jamie Fraser. — Diana Gabaldon

Is thee afraid of me, Rachel?" he whispered. "I am," she whispered back, and closed her hand on his wounded shoulder, lightly but hard enough for him to feel the hurt of it. "And I am afraid for thee, as well. But there are things I fear much more than death - and to be without thee is what I fear most. — Diana Gabaldon

Until we two be burned to ashes. — Diana Gabaldon

To fight disease without medicine is to push against a shadow; a darkness that spreads as inexorably as night. — Diana Gabaldon

Shall I bring you some beer, while you take care of the horse?" "A good wife is prized above rubies," he said, smiling. "Come to me, mo nighean donn." He reached out a long arm and drew me in, holding me close against him. I put my arms around him and felt the quiver of his muscles, exhausted, and the sheer hard strength still in him, that would hold him up, no matter how tired he might be. We stood quite still for some time, my cheek against his chest and his face against my hair, drawing strength from each other for whatever might come. Being married. — Diana Gabaldon

Catholics don't believe in divorce. We do believe in murder. There's always Confession, after all.
Brianna Fraser to Roger MacKenzie — Diana Gabaldon

Dolly'd given him a white silk scarf as a parting present. He didn't know how she'd managed the money for it and she wouldn't let him ask, just settled it round his neck inside his flight jacket. Somebody'd told her the Spitfire pilots all wore them, to save the constant collar chafing, and she meant him to have one. It felt nice, he'd admit that. Made him think of her touch when she'd put it on him. He pushed the thought hastily aside; the last thing he could afford to do was start thinking about his wife, if he ever hoped to get back to her. And he did mean to get back to her. Where — Diana Gabaldon

BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMBS — Diana Gabaldon

It doesn't matter what happens; no matter where a child goes - how far or how long. Even if it's forever. You never lose them. — Diana Gabaldon