Quotes by Melina Marchetta

My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die.I counted.It happened on the Jellicoe Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La. We were going to the ocean, hundreds of miles away, because I wanted to see the ocean and my father said that it was about time the four of us made that journey. I remember asking, What’s the difference between a trip and a journey? and my father said, Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand, and that was the last thing he ever said.

A piece of me is gone, she told me once while we were bra shopping. I think were made up of all these different pieces and every time someone goes, youre left with less of yourself.

Do you want to know something about tyrants? When faced with death, they weep and they beg just like the rest of us.

Phaedra of Alonso’s death was a never-ending pain that gnawed at his insides. It made him a prisoner in his own cottage.

I wish everyone would stop crying, Tom. Uncle Joe would be so angry about it. But shes crying herself now. Hed be so angry at us, Tom, for crying so much when all he did was laugh.

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

Stani walks in later, glaring at them both.“Bloody bastards. One minute punching each other, next minute reading poetry. What’s wrong with everyone this week?”Tom can tell that

Worse still, he doesn’t know how to follow the piper anymore because it’s a path Tom has lost faith in.And the piper knows it. Tom can see it in his father’s eyes now. And the more he stares, the clearer it becomes.

But say he forgets about me or meets someone else or pretends I dont exist.I look at her and then at Trini and Raffy.Teresa, Teresa. Have we taught you nothing? Raffy says in an irritated voice. Its war. You go in and you hunt him down until he realises that hes made a mistakeTeresa looks hopeful.Its not as if men havent gone to war for dumber reasons Trini adds.

The music department is going to do a musical next year, he tells me, rolling his eyes like I would.Justine is running toward me, and I can tell by the look on her face that shes found out about the musical, too.I sigh, shaking my head. I have to give Justine a lesson in holding back, I tell him. Shes just way too enthusiastic.She grabs my arms in excitement. Were doing Les Mis.I scream hysterically, clutching her as we jump up and down.

Arjuro made a scoffing sound. ‘You think Lumatere will invade because of you? Are you that important?’Froi looked away. ‘Isaboe would invade if you kidnapped a servant, let alone a friend.’‘Isaboe? We’re on first-name terms with the Queen of Lumatere, are we?’ Gargarin asked.Froi found himself bristling. ‘What? Do you think I’m some cutthroat for hire who they found hanging around the palace walls with the words “I wantto kill a Charynite King” tattooed on my arse?

She knows that feeling too. Of believing that each time someone says her name, it’s to tell her that something bad has happened.

We approach the house and I wave at Jimmy. And if he thinks hes eating with us, hes got another thing coming, my dad says.Jimmy approaches us and takes the shopping bags from me, looking inside them.Lamb roast. Am I invited?

So I ring Justine Kalinsky and I say, Its Francesca Spinelli, and she says, Francesca, youve got to stop using last names. How are you doing? and I say I feel like shit, and I dont know how it happens, but by eight oclock that night Im lying next to her on the couch with Siobhan and Tara and were eating junk food and watching a Keanu movie. And I want to stay on that couch for the rest of my life.

Phaedra looked across the water and her eyes met Lucian’s. Their needs came second. It came from the privilege of being tr

Do you want to hang out? At your place or something? Hanging out with Jimmy Hailler will mean that I have to say hello to him every day. Im not ready to say hello to him every day. Too much commitment. Its bad enough that Im sharing chocolate brownies swith him. I shake my head. Not today.

The people Im stuck with in my life now arent sucking the life out of me, they just suck.

We’re not eight kingdoms, but an entire land with one heartbeat. It’s why people like you and I need to record our people’s stories so we can find those moments when our paths cross, and only then will we know true peace.

Theres nothing to took forward to any more if you dont have dreams, he said. Because dreams are goals and John might have run out of goals. So he died.

Mercy, Finnikin said, grinning from ear to ear. Were going to have a bed full of children and Ill have to holler out to my wife, Hello there! Its been a long time since we last spoke!