Marchetta Quotes & Sayings

My body becomes a raft and there's this part of me that wants just literally to go with the flow. To close my eyes and let it take me. But I know sooner or later I will have to get out, that I need to feel the earth beneath my feet, between my toes - the splinters, the bindi-eyes, the burning sensation of hot dirt, the sting of cuts, the twigs, the bites, the heat, the discomfort, the everything. I need desperately to feel it all, so when something wonderful happens, the contrast will be so massive that I will bottle the impact and keep it for the rest of my life. — Melina Marchetta

Catch the news/One more day/Big wide world/Swallowed whole/Rhythm breaks me/Out of step/Need to shake this/'Less I break/'Cause nothing counts when you're not here/Too much sadness, too much fear — Melina Marchetta

Some of us weren't born for rewards, Froi. We were born for sacrifices. — Melina Marchetta

Because people aren't interested in the truth, Dafar. They're interested in what keeps them safe. They're interested in being looked after. They're interested in a tale being spun. — Melina Marchetta

Mama says that satisfaction isn't what I should search for. Respect is. Respect?
I detest that word. Probably because in this world you have to respect the wrong people for the wrong reasons. — Melina Marchetta

You know what we call you? Bitch Spice, Burtch Spice, Slut Spice and Stupid Spice.'
Thomas Mackee says this — Melina Marchetta

I'd like to think I'm Elizabeth, but deep down I think I'm the one whose name no one can remember. Not Lydia the slut or Mary the nerd or Jane the beauty or Elizabeth the opinionated. I'm the second-youngest. The forgotten one. - Francesca Spinelli — Melina Marchetta

I had a life with people who I would die for! You've ruined everything. I despise you," he spat.
"You're supposed to despise him," Arjuro muttered. "He's your father. — Melina Marchetta

We look at each other for a moment and for once I feel awkward. It's not that I'm not into humility; I've just never had to practise it. — Melina Marchetta

My king?"

"Yes, my queen?"

"Take me home. — Melina Marchetta

It's not that I like you least [ ... ] it's that I feared you most. The reginita taught me to like you. There was a strange joy to her that lifted my spirits. But you, Quintana of Charyn, you made me love you. — Melina Marchetta

Get over it, I want to tell myself. He's just a gawky guy with a cowlick, not some stud. — Melina Marchetta

So what does the winner get in the end?" Tate asked.
"They get to sit around with the losers and say, 'I am King Xavier of the world.' Repeat after me."
"And me?" Tate asked.
"You get to be my queen."
"How come you're the leader of the community?" Narnie asked, almost smiling. "Why can't Tate be?"
Webb looked at his sister, grinning. "Why can't you, Narnie?"
Fitz leaned his head on Narnie's shoulder. "And I'll be your queen?"
"You can be the eunuch," Jude said, shoving him out of the way, "and I'll be her prince." He bowed and took Narnie's hand, kissing it, and their eyes met. It was awkward for a moment until Narnie looked away. — Melina Marchetta

The worst thing about the slivers of light is that you get to catch people's expressions for only a split second; then they disappear again, and in between you are forced to think about what it is that could make a person look so devastated. — Melina Marchetta

The law known as Marchetta, or Marquette, compelled newly married women to a most dishonorable servitude. They were regarded as the rightful prey of the Feudal Lord from one to three days after their marriage, and from this custom the eldest son of the serf was held as the son of the Lord ... Marquette was claimed by the Lord's Spiritual, as well as by the Lord's Temporal. The Church, indeed, was the bulwark of this base feudal claim. — Matilda Joslyn Gage

And won't he grow up to be the healthiest of young men, all because she kept him safe? Ready for the world. Ready to one day conquer it. To travel. Get on a train. Go to work. Get blown out of her life.
Maybe she should be having that glass of wine and cigarette after all. — Melina Marchetta

What were you doing with her?" I ask quietly.
"Apart from questioning her about your whereabouts, I was listening to the most intriguing story about my life moonlighting as a kidnapper. — Melina Marchetta

Bribes over two dollars are tax deductible — Melina Marchetta

We have arsonists. — Melina Marchetta

I can't believe I said it out loud. The truth doesn't set you free, you know. It makes you feel awkward and embarrassed and defenseless and red in the face and horrified and petrified and vulnerable. But free? I don't feel free. I feel like shit. — Melina Marchetta

Hannah's house has been unfinished ever since I can remember. Deep down I think that's always been a comfort to me, because people don't leave unfinished houses. — Melina Marchetta

Two best friends traveled from the Burdekin in North Queensland sometime in the 1960s and walked into the Union and fell in love with Grace. Tom finch was the smarter talker of the two and won first round, marrying her before his name came up in the lottery sending him to Vietnam on a tour of duty. He never returned. The heartbroken, patient one, Bill Mackee, grieved a best friend and married the love of his life, adopting the twins when they were four years old. — Melina Marchetta

You go shake your foundations, Will. I think it's about time I saved myself. — Melina Marchetta

You're good enough, Jacob. — Melina Marchetta

We could look at the side of wonder. — Melina Marchetta

I just want it to go back to the way it was."
"It'll never go back to the way it was, Frankie. But you have to make sure it goes forward. — Melina Marchetta

The string slices into the skin of his fingers and no matter how tough the calluses, it tears.
But this beat is fast and even though his joints are aching, his arm's out of control like it has a mind of its own and the sweat tat drenches his hair and face seems to smother him, but nothing's going to stop Tom. He;s aiming for oblivion. — Melina Marchetta

Their bedroom has always been our sanctuary. Sometimes at night we'll end up on their bed just talking. My dad will be snoring and Mia will say, "Turn around, Bobby, you're snoring," and he'll turn around and for a moment it'll be silent. Then he'll erupt into a massive snore and Luca and I will kill ourselves laughing and my dad will wake up and bark, "Get to bed!" and not even a second later he'll be snoring and we'll kill ourselves laughing again and Mia will say, "What is this? Grand Central Station? — Melina Marchetta

Do you love me?' he asked instead. 'Because if you don't, I'd wait until you did. I'd wait weeks and months and years. — Melina Marchetta

The idea that God works in mysterious ways is rubbish. There's nothing mysterious about his ways. They're premeditated and slightly conniving, and they place you in an impossible situation. — Melina Marchetta

I don't despise you for what you allowed to happen to me. I despise you because when I was released, you refused to be found and I needed you more than anything in my life. Not to mend my broken bones, Arjuro. I needed my brother to mend my broken spirit. — Melina Marchetta

Why do they always have to remember the pathetic stuff? Why can't they ever remember something positive being said about me? — Melina Marchetta

We're an Ag college," I explain to them. "Not as good as the one in Yanco but we have livestock."
"Cows?" Anson Choi asks, covering his nose.
"Pigs, too. And horses. Great for growing tomatoes.
The Cadets are wanna-be soldiers. City people. They may know how to street fight but they don't know how to wade through manure.
"I'm going to throw up," one of the guys says.
"Don't feel too bad," I explain. "Some of our lot did while they were laying out this stuff. Actually, right there where you're standing. — Melina Marchetta

Even five minutes of your time can make someone's day, — Melina Marchetta

You can't think for other people. Nor can you feel for them or be them. They have to do that for themselves. — Melina Marchetta

Guys don't like chicks who are down all the time. — Melina Marchetta

Thirdly is how I feel about you, but more than anything how I feel about me because of you. — Melina Marchetta

What if I told you that if you took me to that train right now, I'd throw myself in front of it without a moment's hesitation?" I whisper. "I swear to God I would, Jonah."
( ... )
I'm shaking so hard and it feels like I'll never be able to stop.
"Please don't be crazy, Taylor," Griggs whispers, leaning his head against mine. "Please don't be crazy." He kisses me, holding my face between his hands, whispering over and over again, "Please."
It's the pleading in his voice that calms my heart rate. — Melina Marchetta

Unexpectedly, a fierce sense of protectiveness comes over me. Except I fight it back because I can hardly look after myself these days. — Melina Marchetta

And when you'd finished running you'd be thousands of miles away from people who love you and your problem would still be there except you'd have nobody to help you. — Melina Marchetta

My mother, unlike yours, never exchanged sexual favors for a piece of silver," he said, addressing the first insult by banging the boy's head against the trunk of the tree. "And," he said with another resounding thump, "although I'm very familiar with that part of the female body, I take offense at being labeled one. — Melina Marchetta

They camped that night under a full moon and a sky crowded with stars that made Froi forget that there was an old man waiting to die and remember that there was a kingdom dying to live. — Melina Marchetta

Scatter?' Tate said. 'Why? We stay here. Why go anywhere else?'
'Because we'll never know how great this place is until we leave it,' Narnie said. — Melina Marchetta

And I don't know why, but I sit on that step until the last person's gone home and I'm still grinning. Like someone who has a bit of a crush. — Melina Marchetta

One day Tate was there, a ghost of Tate — Melina Marchetta

Froi saw the foolishness of dreamers, and he decided he'd like to die so foolish. With a dream in his heart about the possibilities, rather than a chain of hopelessness. — Melina Marchetta

But Froi looked around with wonder.
As if he had never seen the world from up so high before. — Melina Marchetta

He has a strange face. It's all sharpness and angles and incredibly fair skin. But then he's got this thatch of black hair that's such a contrast. It's like two cultures had a massive fight over his face and neither won. — Melina Marchetta

About my first memory, sitting on the shoulders of a giant who I know can only be my father. Of touching the sky. Of lying between two people who read me stories of wild things and journeys with dragons, the soft hum of their voices speaking of love and serenity. See, I remember love. — Melina Marchetta

Stop. Revive. Survive — Melina Marchetta

You've been quiet these past days," Trevanion said. "Are you going to tell me what the ... exchange of words was about?"
"Who said there was an exchange of words?" Finnikin asked with irritation.
"When a woman says 'I hope you fall under your horse' and 'catch your death, then see if I grieve you,'" Perri said, "then there's been an exchange of words."
Finnikin glared at him.
"In my humble opinion. — Melina Marchetta

Why are you smiling?' Gargarin asked Froi, from across the balconette. 'When you're going to have to learn a lesson in diplomacy today and choose between the gardens of two women?'
Froi laughed, his chin resting on Quintana's head, his eyes taking in the joy of his son, despite the ridiculous cap that covered the babe's head. He looked across at Lirah and Arjuro and Rafuel, and then back to Gargarin who was smiling himself, because he knew the answer to his own question.
'Because today, I think I'm leaning on the side of wonder. — Melina Marchetta

You always seem so in control."
"And you don't?"
He laughed, but somehow not humorously. There was a darkness in his eyes that had nothing to do with color.
"I'll let you in on a secret. I'm not. Sometimes I think that this life is shit. I mean, don't you find it pathetic? — Melina Marchetta

The moment he sees a glimpse of underwear, he will be officially in Sicko Land and he will be forced to make some kind of noise. Flushing, coughing, heavy footsteps. Talk to himself out loud. The moment he sees anything that in anyway will be considered a sexual act between ...
"Stani, the bins are done!" he yells out. — Melina Marchetta

Never underestimate the value of knowing another's language. It can be far more powerful than swords and arrows. — Melina Marchetta

Despite her ability to enjoy most of their days, sometimes her despair was so great that, in a melancholy moment when she'd allow herself to think of her family, she'd almost stop breathing — Melina Marchetta

Are you calling us pigs?' Froi asked, watching as Rafuel winced for the tenth time at the formality of Froi's Charyn.Rafuel thought for a moment and then nodded.'Actually yes, I am. Pig-like.'Froi turned back to Trevanion and Perri, who were discussing the need for longbow training in the rock village.'What is it?' Perri asked Froi.'He said we eat like pigs.'Trevanion and Perri thought about it for a moment and then went back to their conversation. — Melina Marchetta

He is the most beautiful creature I have ever seen and it's not about his face, but the life force I can see in him. It's the smile and the pure promise of everything he has to offer. Like he's saying, 'Here I am world, are you ready for so much passion and beauty and goodness and love and every other word that should be in the dictionary under the word life?' Except this boy is dead, and the unnaturalness of it makes me want to pull my hair out with Tate and Narnie and Fitz and Jude's grief all combined. It makes me want to yell at the God that I wish I didn't believe in. For hogging him all to himself. I want to say, 'You greedy God. Give him back. I needed him here. — Melina Marchetta

Was. What does was actually mean? The verb to be. Past tense of is. Does it mean that someone is no longer being? — Melina Marchetta

I want to tell him that deep down each time Hannah looked at him she was grateful it was him because Jude did something that the others didn't. He came back for her. — Melina Marchetta

Instinct tells me to go to Hannah's, but she doesn't live there anymore and that's when I realize the major difference between my mother and Hannah. My mother deserted me at the 7-Eleven, hundred of kilometers away from home.
Hannah, however, did the unforgivable.
She deserted me in our own backyard. — Melina Marchetta

In the end, the sum of my vices is all me. — Melina Marchetta

Does it help?" he asks. "The e-mailing."
She nods. "A tiny bit. It's strange. You're writing a letter to someone who's never going to read it, so it kind of frees you up a bit. — Melina Marchetta

I heard your song the moment we were born. And years later, it dragged me back from the lake of the half-dead when all I wanted to do was die. Each time someone tried to kill me, it sang its tune and gave me hope. — Melina Marchetta

He came to understand the difference between the gods' blessed and a smart man. His uncle was one. His father the other. — Melina Marchetta

The king's very simple cousin, for example, pointed out that the tower Froi could see from where he was standing was the prison and currently held only one prisoner. "The rest of the the scum are kept in dungeons close to the bridge of the Citavita," the man explained.
"And the king?" Froi asked.
"We try not to refer to him as scum out loud," the man whispered. — Melina Marchetta

Oh God, Frankie, I breathe in rhythm with that man. You think that's not my flesh and blood after all these years? — Melina Marchetta

Your friends are at the house.'
I sit up, straight. 'Who'?
'I don't know. Weird people. The Sullivan girl, whose father got the Gosford police to pick you up.'
'Siobhan?'
'And another one who's making cups of tea for everyone, and keeping the boy who's telling Luca fart jokes away from the girl who says he's "the last bastion of patriarchal poor taste".'
'Justine, Thomas and Tara.'
And the drug fiend, Jimmy, is keeping Mia calm and the Trombal boy's rung about ten times. I don't like his manner on the phone.'
'You won't like any guy's manner on the phone. — Melina Marchetta

How can you just forget a person completely until the moment you see his face again? — Melina Marchetta

And through all the misery, she said that some of us in this lifetime experience a moment of beauty beyond reckoning. I asked her what that was, and she said, If you're one of the lucky ones, you'll know it when you see it. You'll understand why the gods have made you suffer. Because that moment's reward will make your knees weak and everything you've suffered in life will pale in comparison. — Melina Marchetta

She clutched him, her fingers digging in like she needed to gather parts of him to act as her own second skin for the rest of her life. — Melina Marchetta

I heard the Avarosh aunt say, 'She should grow her hair to hide that pointy chin and pointy nose.'"
"If I see that pointy chin and nose hidden, I'll have to hurt someone."
"You're supposed to say I don't have a pointy chin or pointy nose."
"But you do. And you also have pointy eyes," he added as he kissed both lids, "and a pointy mouth," he teased, pressing his lips against hers, "and a pointy tongue." His body covered hers as he held her face in his hands and captured her mouth, the silk warmness of her tongue matching his, stroke for stroke. Then he felt the sharp nip of her teeth as his mouth dared leave hers, traveling down toward her throat, fleetingly tracing the scars of the noose. "And a pointy, pointy heart. — Melina Marchetta

Up in the distance the whistle of the wind sang to her from the mountain. From Lucian's mountain. It beckoned and taunted and she wanted to run towards it. To be enveloped in its coat of fleece and to hear its safe sounds. — Melina Marchetta

Well, I'm not sure what suspicious looks like. Sometimes when you come down the mountain and stand behind those trees, you look suspicious. — Melina Marchetta

He knows no other way but ugliness," Sir Topher said quietly. "He was taught no other lessons but those of force. His teachers have been scum who live by their own rules. No one has ever taught him otherwise." "Am I to forgive him?" she said, her voice shaking with anger. "No," he said sadly. "Pity him. Or give him new rules. — Melina Marchetta

If Froi understood anything, it was that in this world one's worth came from others. — Melina Marchetta

So I'm cruising down the road and the object of my thoughts is racing down the street, screaming that her father is a cop. A public servant, very flattering"
" I like a man in uniform"
He laughed. 'Do you like pizza?'
'What a ridiculous question. I suppose you're going to ask me if I like pasta next? — Melina Marchetta

I wanted to say, 'Your face has been taken by another, so I've forgotten the malice in your eyes and the bitterness of your mouth. — Melina Marchetta

A home to come back to every day of their lives.
Where they would all belong or long to be.
A place on the Jellicoe Road. — Melina Marchetta

If I had to wish for something, just one thing, it would be that Hannah would never see Tate the way I did. Never see Tate's beautiful, lush hair turn brittle, her skin sallow, her teeth ruined by anything she could get her hands on that would make her forget. That Hannah would never count how many men there were, or how vile humans can be to one another. That she would never see the moments in my life that were full of neglect, and fear, and revulsion, moments I can never go back to because I know they will slow me down for the rest of my life if I let myself remember them for one moment. Tate, who had kept Hannah alive that night, reading her the story of Jem Finch and Mrs. Dubose. And suddenly I know I have to go. But this time without being chased by the Brigadier, without experiencing the kindness of a postman from Yass, and without taking along a Cadet who will change the way I breath for the rest of my life. — Melina Marchetta

I want to cry because my mind is working too much — Melina Marchetta

And being that happy makes me feel guilty. Because I shouldn't be. Not while my mum is feeling the way she is. How I can dare to be happy is beyond me, and I hate my guts for it. — Melina Marchetta

..I need to know that I can still breathe properly when he's not around. — Melina Marchetta

He takes the coffee from her, needing fresh air because if he doesn't get out of this room, he'll suffocate from memories. He's felt like that for more than a month now. There's no particular reason for it, but sometimes he feels like he can't breathe, like his body is shutting down. — Melina Marchetta

She could have dropped you both off. whar's the worst she can do? cry hysterically?"
the gears on the ute get stuck at the lights and will pushes tom's hand out of the way and and shoves it into the correct gear.
"it wasn't her" he mutters after a moment.
"sorry?" tom says.
"she didn't cry"
"then what?"
it's too quiet except for the quiet for the crap engine sounding like a lawn mower.
"i cried"
luca bursts out laughing beside will.
"yeah, well i did" will says. "And it's not the thing you want to do in front of a bunch on engineers. — Melina Marchetta

And I hate him and love him and curse him and feel sorry for him, all at the same time. — Melina Marchetta

It's all rather political, mourning is. — Melina Marchetta

I'm very disturbed to find out that the leader of the Townies has a soul and I'm beginning to develop a bit of a crush on him. — Melina Marchetta

I ran away one day. He was running in the same direction. — Melina Marchetta

Everyone else would have danced around the truth for too long a time. Lirah, was able to slap them in the face with it until it could be avoided no longer. — Melina Marchetta

Froi thought for a moment. I never imagined I was looking for something in a woman. But if I did, I'd have to judge her by the way I felt lying beside her before I went to sleep at night and how I felt in the morning waking up to her. — Melina Marchetta

People divulge things to you that they would not divulge to anyone else. — Melina Marchetta

When one is silent, those around speak even more. — Melina Marchetta

He chanced a look at her and saw the flare of something in her eyes. A salve to the emptiness that sometimes threatened to suffocate him. — Melina Marchetta

It's Tolstoy, by the way," I say as I open the door.
He turns around. "What?"
Shut up, I tell myself. Shut up.
"The writer of Anna Karenina. Not Trotsky. Trotsky was a revolutionary who was stabbed with a
pickax in Mexico in 1940. But I can understand how the T thing could confuse you. — Melina Marchetta

He wanted her to acknowledge that it was she who had bed him the night they gave themselves to each other. That his broken spirit and hers had created rather than destroyed something for the first time in their wretched lives. — Melina Marchetta

As he left Yata's home that morning, he knew that a part of his life was complete and that whatever path he chose, he would experience the ache of unfulfilled dreams. For a moment he allowed himself to feel regret at the thought of never building a cottage by the river with Trevanion. Or living the life of a simple farmer connected to the earth. Or traveling his kingdom, satisfying the nomad he had become. To be Finnikin of the Rock and the Monts and the River and the Flatlands and the Forest. To be none of those at all.
Yet he also knew that to lose her to another man would be a slow torture every day for the rest of his life. — Melina Marchetta

His seed will issue kings, but he will never reign
For she would be Queen of Lumatere.
But he would be king to her. — Melina Marchetta

Someone had to be blamed. Someone had to die. ( ... ) What you can't understand, you destroy. — Melina Marchetta

Webb read fantasy; Jude read realism — Melina Marchetta