My Antonia Quotes & Sayings

My mother, who was quite sharp when I was young, became utterly mild. — Antonia Fraser

I'd love to get my teeth into Shakespeare. — Antonia Thomas

I slipped one of the shoes off, looked at the inside. Property of Antonia O'Neill Taylor. I knew it. My stepmother! The bitch meant to bury me wearing her cast off shoes! — MaryJanice Davidson

Uh, Miss Carlson," I said, standing at her desk after everybody else had gone on to their next class, "somebody told me you went to that guy's funeral the one the highway patrol shot."
"Yes," SHe said. "I did."
She didn't look like she was mad at me about it. She had real long eyelashes. I bet she was good-looking when she was young.
"Was he a relative or something?" That was what I was afraid of.
"No. Not even a friend really." She paused, like she was hunting for the right words. Finally she said, "I read a book once that ended with the words 'the incommunicable past' You can only share the past with someone who's shared it with you. So I can't explain to you what Mark was to me, exactly. I knew him a long time ago. — S.E. Hinton

My mother was a politician in my formative years. — Antonia Fraser

The concentration in my book on Marie Antoinette's childhood and on her family influences. It is surprising how some books actually start with her arrival in France! — Antonia Fraser

But what does he want my heart for?" the little queen asked.
"He just wants to own it," replied the sea lion. "That is enough. He wants to look on its beauty and know that his hands alone can touch it. — Antonia Michaelis

That is happiness, to be dissolved into something complete and great. — Willa Cather

Wherever I may be
In the woods or in the fields
Whatever the hours of day
Be it dawn or the eventide
My heart still feels it yet
The eternal regret...
As I sink into my sleep
The absent one is near
Alone upon my couch
I feel his beloved touch
In work or in repose
We are foreverver close... — Mary, Queen Of Scots

I whirled round, and there on one of those dry gravel beds, was the biggest snake I had ever seen. He was sunning himself, after the cold night, and he must have been asleep when Antonia screamed. When I turned, he was lying in long loose waves, like a letter "W." He twitched and began to coil slowly. He was not merely a big snake, I thought-he was a circus monstrosity. His abominable muscularity, his loathsome, fluid motion, somehow made me sick. He was as thick as my leg, and looked as if millstones couldn't crush the disgusting vitality out of him. — Willa Cather

That is my major concern: writers who are in prison for writing. — Antonia Fraser

Mary Queen of Scots was my first love, and that is always something special. — Antonia Fraser

I think crime writing is my link with trying to preserve a sort of order. — Antonia Fraser

People in my books tend to get their just deserts, even if not at the hands of the police. — Antonia Fraser

My outlook has changed, Antonia. Last year this time, I'd bemoaned the ruined hay." He shrugged. "Now I know what real loss is. So I'm seeing things differently. — Debra Holland

My father was a classical singer of baroque music, and my older sister was in musical theatre, and I thought about doing the same thing but then realised straight acting was for me. — Antonia Thomas

You know, Ian," Antonia commented, "my father always said a person needs a reason to leave and a reason to go. But I think sometimes the reason to go is so big, it fills you so much, that you don't even think of why you are leaving, you just do. — Erica Bauermeister

I hate the only one of my book jackets when I was made up professionally, my hair made into a smooth bell. — Antonia Fraser

Her words were like the hammer. My stance was of a nail. I didn't need those callous words on my once strong shell. Hammered. Hammered. Words on my shoulder blades. All of my great feelings concave. — Antonia Perdu

She had taught herself how to knit, and for the mare's scarf - it was green - she had given herself the best grade possible. And ... '
'That's silly!' Micha giggled.
'Well, who is the cliff queen, you or me?' Abel asked. 'It isn't my fault if you're giving yourself grades! — Antonia Michaelis

A book--a real book--is one choice, taken from a pile, opened and entered as its own singular, separate world. Once chosen, you are not holding the constant opportunity to alter or improve your choice, or simply change it just for the sake of restless change. You are there, now, without the relentless pressure of the fact that you could always be, and maybe you should be, maybe you'd be happier or more productive or different, doing something else. It's a choice I hope my kids will decide to make, often. — K.J. Dell'Antonia

When I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing. Filling pages and people with inspiration. When my thoughts don't want to rest on a page, we argue. We argue that one merely is ready just too comfortable playing in The Nile [denial] river. So we compromise. We grow,
water metaphors
and plant simile trees
of golden-almond
manifested love dreams.
Then at that moment, we forgot what we were arguing about.
Beauty can do that for you.
That's the beauty of writing. — Antonia Perdu

Who goes to the beach without trying to touch the water? The one who cannot see the water, but if the blind wishes to FEEL the water, he shall not retreat, just as long as he holds hands with FAITH. — Antonia Perdu

As the Dauphine stepped out of her carriage on to the ceremonial carpet that had been laid down, it was the Duc de Choiseul who was given the privilege of the first salute. Presented with the Duc by Prince Starhemberg, Marie Antoinette exclaimed: 'I shall never forget that you are responsible for my happiness! — Antonia Fraser

But whenever my consciousness was quickened, all those early friends were quickened within it, and in some strange way they accompanied me through all my new experiences. They were so much alive in me that I scarcely stopped to wonder whether they were alive anywhere else. Or how. — Willa Cather

Ninety-seven is my lucky number. — Antonia Fraser

My upbringing has always been quite equal in terms of cultural influences. But it's unlikely that anything could prepare you for a job that involves belting out Proclaimers songs on camera, in Edinburgh and in public. — Antonia Thomas

When people come up to me and say, 'Oh my God - you're that character,' I feel like replying, 'No, I'm just like you; it's just a job.' — Antonia Thomas

I'd love to be in a period drama - that's my obsession. But being a mixed-race actress, there aren't so many roles you're right for. — Antonia Thomas

Was Charles I too stubborn to listen to reason? Could Civil War have been averted if the king had been more willing to negotiate? His great enemy Cromwell always maintained that the king had been swayed at the last moment by his queen, the beautiful Henrietta Maria. We can believe Cromwell's claim that the queen told her husband to be firm. But the wicked, spiteful, altogether irresistable quote often attributed to her by Puritan writers of the time is almost certainly false.
Oh my love, if you cannot remain firm in the bedchamber, at least try to remain firm with your subjects! — Antonia Fraser

Antonia had always been one to leave images in the mind that did not fade - that grew stronger with time. In my memory there was a succession of such pictures, fixed there like the old woodcuts of one's first primer ... She lent herself to immemorial human attitudes which we recognize by instinct as universal and true ... She was a battered woman now, not a lovely girl; but she still had that something which fires the imagination, could still stop one's breath for a moment by a look or gesture ... All the strong things of her heart came out in her body, that had been so tireless in serving generous emotions. — Willa Cather

My advantage as a woman and a human being has been in having a mother who believed strongly in women's education. She was an early undergraduate at Oxford, and her own mother was a doctor. — Antonia Fraser

I'll come back," I said earnestly, through the soft, intrusive darkness.
"Perhaps you will"- I felt rather than saw her smile. "But even if you don't, you're here, like my father. So I won't be lonesome. — Willa Carther

Hating L.A. was in my Northern California DNA. We even had a burl plaque that hung on our living room wall that read, "We Don't Give a Damn How it's Done in L.A. — Antonia Crane

I realize that I had always in my heart of hearts planned to write a biography of Marie Antoinette. — Antonia Fraser