Quotes by Louise Penny

In winter the very ground seemed to reach up and grab the elderly, yanking them to earth as though hungry for them.

Hed shoved his toque and mitts into the sleeve of his parka when hed come in the night before, and now, thrusting his right arm into the armhole, he hit the blockage. At a practiced shove the pompom of the toque crowned the cuff followed by his mitts, like a tiny birth.

Beauvoir was quiet, watching the Chief, taking in the gleam in his eye, the enthusiasm as he described what hed found. Not the physical landscape, but the emotional. The intellectual.Many might have thought the Chief Inspector was a hunter. He tracked down killers. But Jean Guy knew he wasnt that. Chief Inspector Gama he was an explorer by nature. He was never happier than when he was pushing the boundaries, exploring the internal terrain. Areas even the person themselves hadnt explored. Had never examined. Probably because it was too scary.

…while men and women perished, and cities fell, symbols endured, grew. Symbols were immortal.

Our lives are like a house. Some people are allowed on the lawn, some onto the porch, some get into the vestibule or the kitchen. The better friends are invited deeper into our home, into our living room.And some are let into the bedroom, said Gamache.

There are generally three parties to child abuse: the abused, the abuser and the bystander.

Do you know why we’re all happy here, monsieur? Because it’s the last house on the road.

The reason Armand Gamache could go there was because it wasnt totally foreign to him. He knew it because he’d seen his own burned terrain, he’d walked off the familiar and comfortable path inside his own head and heart and seen what festered in the dark. And one day Jean Guy Beauvoir would look at his own monsters, and then be able to recognize others. And maybe this was the day and this was the case. He hoped so.

“People wandered in for books and conversation. They brought their stories to her, some bound, and some known by heart. She recognized some of the stories as real, and some as fiction. But she honored them all, though she didnt buy every one.”