“There are some things, once they are done, that we can never question, because if we did, we wouldn't be able to go on. And we have to go on, every single day.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“Even the worst feeling, with time and familiarity, became tolerable.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“Would you have this?” the Protectorat hissed at his son.
Rafael's gaze narrowed in a slow inspection while she stared defiantly back. Rafael's gaze faltered, shot briefly toward Leon, and then down. His answer was obvious: no.
And in spite of everything, in the face of all the other more important dangers that threatened her, it still stung that someone, some boy, found her ugly. Gaia burned with sudden hate for all of them.
The Protectorat saw. He smiled slightly.
“I thought not,” said the Protectorat, releasing her with a flick. He turned back toward his family. “I can't thrust her on any family I know, no matter what her genes are. She's a freak, not a hero. I'd rather make a hero out of Myrna Silk.”
Leon had been standing tensely throughout this exchange. “I'd take Gaia,” Leon said, his low voice resonating in the space.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“What happened to your face?' he asked. 'When I was little, my grandmother was making candles and she had a big vat of hot beeswax in the backyard,' she said. 'I walked into the vat.' Usually that ended the conversation. 'I don't remember it,' she added. 'How old were you?' he asked. She tilted her face slightly, watching him. 'Ten months.' 'You were walking at ten months?' he asked. 'Not very well, apparently,' she said dryly.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“When you decide something's right, there's nothing that can stop you from doing it.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“There are many ways to be a criminal or hero. Don't forget that.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“Be good, Gaia,” Capt. Grey told her, his voice grave. She still refused to look at him, but she could feel the heated flush of anger again in her cheeks. “Cooperate with the guards. For your own sake,” he continued.
“Be good yourself, Captain,” she said bitterly. “If you know how.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“Though she could not see his shadowed eyes clearly, she sensed an emptiness in there that matched the controlled composure of his other features. It chilled her.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“As she walked through the dark, stepping softly through the wet stones, she looked ahead to where the first cautious star managed to blink through the clouds.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“She pivoted right, and sensed the vast, open space of the wasteland stretching before her under the opaque sky, a darkness as thin and final as the velvet lining of a shroud.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“The tinkle of a wind chime stirred from over a window. Purple and white phlox cascaded cheerfully over the top of a nearby stone wall. Sunlight sifted through the weave of her straw hat, casting freckles of light on her nose and cheeks that shifted, out of focus, as she walked.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“That was a sauna parlor, there, where I found you," the baker said. "They'll just think you were working the late shift."
Gaia was baffled. "A sauna parlor?"
She saw the baker and his wife hesitate.
The girl clarified in her open, childish voice. "He means it's a brothel."
The baked clapped a hand to his forehead.
"What?" the girl said. "It's a very discreet, high-class brothel.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“Todos somos vulnerables, sobre todo cuando amamos a alguien.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“She waited, unwilling to meet his eyes, hoping he would go on. When he didn't, the silence stretched between them like invisible cobwebs. In the dimmest part of her, she realized she might have wishes, too, elusive wishes that belonged more to a girl in a garden than they did to a captive.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“You always have a choice, Gaia. You can always say no.” His voice was strangely hollow. “They might kill you for it, but you can always say no.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“Unutma, hepimiz savunmasızız. Özellikle de birini seviyorsak.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“Nothing was right with her parents gone, no matter how much she'd tried to go on without them.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“You know what? You re pretty good at pushing people away from you. Did you know that? Maybe that's why you had only one friend growing up.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
“Once I'm gone, be careful who you trust. Use your wits, Gaia," the woman said. "Remember we're all vulnerable. Especially if we love someone."
"You've got that wrong," Gaia said, thinking of her parents.
"It's love that makes us strong.”
― Caragh M. O'Brien, quote from Birthmarked
Caragh M. O'Brien
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“That's not the end of the world! This is the time to cut loose! To really learn about everything! To learn about guys, to really get to know them! Really find out what goes on in the world! You just have to let yourself fly for once, without constantly thinking about what you left behind on the ground! You're a genius. Everybody knows that. I'm being sincere, Charlotte. Totally. Now there's other things to learn, and this is the perfect time to do it. Take a chance! That's one reason people go to college! It's not the only reason, but it's a big reason.”
― Tom Wolfe, quote from I am Charlotte Simmons
“Well, he was scarcely a parfit gentil knight; as Wolfie said, he looked like some Hollywood Geronimo trying to kick a ninety-dollar habit.”
― Peter Matthiessen, quote from At Play in the Fields of the Lord
“...the mode by which he "heard" the universe and projected it far beyond himself. Perhaps it was in this, I said to Albertine, this unknown quality of a unique world which no other composer had ever yet revealed, that the most authentic proof of genius lies, even more than in the content of the work itself. "Even in literature?” Albertine inquired. “Even in literature.” And thinking again of the sameness of Vinteuil’s works, I explained to Albertine that the great men of letters have never created more than a single work, or rather have never done more than refract through various media an identical beauty which they bring into the world. “If it were not so late, my sweet,” I said to her, “I would show you this quality in all the writers whose works you read while I’m asleep, I would show you the same identity as in Vinteuil. These key-phrases, which you are beginning to recognise as I do, my little Albertine, the same in the sonata, in the septet, in the other works, would be, say for instance in Barbey dAurevilly, a hidden reality revealed by a physical sign, the physiological blush...”
― Marcel Proust, quote from The Captive & The Fugitive
“But then, Phillip reminded me of something that happened so long ago, I had completely forgotten it. He reminded of when we were ten, and he gave me my first kiss. We were on the swings out behind school, and right after he kissed me, he got up and ran away. Then all of a sudden, he stopped, turned around and yelled back, Will you marry me someday? And I yelled back to him, YES! And so he said that if people ask, I could tell them that we've been secretly engaged for the past twelve years. And so,.. you will probably all think I am very crazy, but I had to say YES again tonight!”
― Jillian Dodd, quote from That Boy
“I told you that I would protect you. Even if you don't want me to," he whispered, moving closer and pulling me against him. "Some things are worth protecting”
― Amelia Hutchins, quote from Taunting Destiny
Brain Droppings
Witch Child
The Complete Stories...
The Lake House
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