Quotes from A Year of Marvellous Ways

Sarah Winman ·  310 pages

Rating: (4.7K votes)


“Coming back from the dead is not quite the same as coming back to life.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways


“There was no point in tears outliving eyes, so she let them fall.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways


“Love just enough. What's enough? Enough to hold. When it hurts, you're loving too much. Just enough to hold. Anything more than a handful and you're in trouble.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways


“We were the centre of that liquid universe, for we were the night sun and we said to ships, do not come too close, we have rocks at our feet. And the crash of waves sent white spray flying, and I am scared and exhilarated and a little bit in love too.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways


“It was as if a blade had shucked his heart like an oyster and stolen the beauty within. He said his heart never started beating again, it just started working and I never understood the difference, not until I was much older anyway, when I learnt that coming back from the dead is not quite the same as coming back to life.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways



“Love. It's the only thing to have faith in... Or the moon. Soemthing that turns up every day when you cant. The sun. The moon. Anything. You have to have faith in something.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways


“No atheists at sea, Drake. When the waves are the size of mountains even the godless kneel.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways


“The choir sang and the old man sang and Drake couldn't sing, and suddenly he began to cry because of the music, because of the sound of the boys' voices, because of what they might turn into.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways


“The principles of catching rumours were, in fact, similar to the principals of catching dreams, but because rumour was weightier, the catcher had to be positioned closer to the ground. Rumour flew low, dreams flew high, and somewhere in between were prayers.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways


“So, thought Peace, there was a wall around his heart and she wondered whether she should hoist up her skirt and scale that wall, but she knew she didn’t have the right shoes on for that sort of climb because hers were too sensible for a man like Drake.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways



“She trekked back across the meadow and down through the trees in possession of the oldest secret known to man. She sat on the mooring stone and surrendered immediately to the down of night. She hadn't slept long before she suddenly jolted awake. Thought she had heard the sweet call of a lark ascending. Unaware that it was actually the sound of her soul awakening.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways


“Marvellous blossomed, having quite forgotten what an exciting and necessary jolt being needed gave.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways


“You have to risk failure to become excellent.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways


“And they held on tight to that beautiful silent moment before words transported them to the realm of the ordinary, to the realm of the inarticulate and mundane.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways


“Those left behind prayed constantly for peace but prayers came back with Return to Sender stamped all over them. Only the roll call of the dead grew.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways



“But I’m not patient, said Marvellous. I’m diligent.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways


About the author

Sarah Winman
Born place: The United Kingdom
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“You know,' I whispered, 'some girls might think it's creepy having a boy watch them sleep.'

He smirked and pointed to himself. 'Spy.'

'Oh.' I nodded. 'Right. So you're a trained Peeping Tom.'

'Product of the best peeping academies in the country.'

'Well, now I feel much better.'

'You should.”
― Ally Carter, quote from Out of Sight, Out of Time


“What you call idiot points, I call awesome dollars. ~Seth”
― Brandon Mull, quote from Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary


“I hate women who complain about being fat when they're like a size 5. Anything under size 5 isn't a woman. It's a boy with breasts.”
― Laurell K. Hamilton, quote from Obsidian Butterfly


“They were the cars at the fair that were whirling around her; no, they were the planets, while the sun stood, burning and spinning and guttering in the centre; here they came again, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto; but they were not planets, for it was not the merry-go-round at all, but the Ferris wheel, they were constellations, in the hub of which, like a great cold eye, burned Polaris, and round and round it here they went: Cassiopeia, Cepheus, the Lynx, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, and the Dragon; yet they were not constellations, but, somehow, myriads of beautiful butterflies, she was sailing into Acapulco harbour through a hurricane of beautiful butterflies, zigzagging overhead and endlessly vanishing astern over the sea, the sea, rough and pure, the long dawn rollers advancing, rising, and crashing down to glide in colourless ellipses over the sand, sinking, sinking, someone was calling her name far away and she remembered, they were in a dark wood, she heard the wind and the rain rushing through the forest and saw the tremours of lightning shuddering through the heavens and the horse—great God, the horse—and would this scene repeat itself endlessly and forever?—the horse, rearing, poised over her, petrified in midair, a statue, somebody was sitting on the statue, it was Yvonne Griffaton, no, it was the statue of Huerta, the drunkard, the murderer, it was the Consul, or it was a mechanical horse on the merry-go-round, the carrousel, but the carrousel had stopped and she was in a ravine down which a million horses were thundering towards her, and she must escape, through the friendly forest to their house, their little home by the sea.”
― Malcolm Lowry, quote from Under the Volcano


“It's special, grandparents and grandchldren. So much simpler. Is it always so, I wonder? I think perhaps it is. While one's child takes a part of one's heart to use and misuse as they please, a grandchild is different. Gone are the bonds of guilt and responsibility that burden the maternal relationship. The way to love is free.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The House at Riverton


Interesting books

The Ghost and the Goth
(16.3K)
The Ghost and the Go...
by Stacey Kade
Unhinged
(18.2K)
Unhinged
by A.G. Howard
The Desert Spear
(63.5K)
The Desert Spear
by Peter V. Brett
Chasm City
(16.3K)
Chasm City
by Alastair Reynolds
The Poetic Edda
(5.5K)
King Leopold's Ghost
(29.3K)
King Leopold's Ghost
by Adam Hochschild

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.