“In Ixion music and party are our only beliefs. Darkness is our comfort. We have few rules but they are absolute. Your endocrine systems have been altered by changes to your hypothalamus. You no longer need to sleep or see sunlight.”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“Ixion exists as an antidote to the rules and conventions of other places. We believe that indulging in pleasure will make better people. Self-denial and discipline and virtue are all myths invented to control you.”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“Rules? Ixion is supposed to be free of rules, yet it seems as strict as Grave in its own way and more...more dangerous.”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“Everyone comes here for pleasure. Even if they think they don't. Embracing it is harder for some and they go mad before they truly accept it. Most of the places they cme from are founded on guilt and rules. The Ripers want us to break away from that - some wish to tear it from us while others are more subtle.”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“Kero and Rollo stood over it, slick with blood, both holding knives.
‘Kero, you came? Why?’ asked Naif.
‘Maybe I just needed someone to show me how to be brave enough,’ he replied with a hint of a dangerous grin.”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“I burned too bright. I saw too much.”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“Will you wait for me on the platform then?’
Suki looked at Rollo and cast her eyes upward. ‘I suppose so.’
Retra smiled at her. ‘Don’t you mean, “I guess so”?”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“Something from out in the dark brushed her throat, damp
fingers smearing her with warm wetness. She started, raising a hand against it, but touched nothing.
A teasing whisper in her ear – no, more a thought. Come to me …
She glanced around to see if anyone else had heard, but those near her gazed eagerly ahead. Except the Riper; he watched her.”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“We all pretend things sometimes. And sometimes we leave thing too late.”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“Retra recoiled from his dangling nakedness...”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“Can you really change anything, Joel?”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“Your kind shouldn’t come here. The change is too great for Seals. Yet you have chosen it and rejected your society, so you must learn quickly or perish.”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“Ixion music and party are our only beliefs. Darkness is our comfort. We have few rules but they are absolute. Your endocrine systems have been altered by changes to your hypothalamus. You no longer need to sleep or see sunlight.’ More titters and cheers.”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“Why did you get involved? That’s not a Seal thing to do.’ ‘I … what Brand was doing to Krista-belle … she was scared … like when the warden gave me the obedience strip.’ ‘You had a pain strip? Fross! How did you leave the compound then?’ Retra gave him a small, anxious smile. ‘I practised. The pain.’ Rollo’s expression changed. His eyes widened in a kind of admiration and he enveloped her in a comforting hug. But Retra didn’t want comfort right now. She wanted to leave. As she tried to edge out his grip he held on. ‘There’s something I’m going to tell you. The real reason that I came here,’ he said.”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“Retra pressed her fingers to her thigh. The intense pain from her obedience strip had receded to a steady throb and nausea. Perhaps that was the worst it would get, now that she’d left the compound. She glanced back. No shout came. No lights followed her. The rust-mesh fence that segregated the Seal enclave from the rest of Grave rose like a grey fortress in the dark. And she’d climbed it. Pain can be dismissed. Her brother Joel had said that to her after Father had beat him one time. Retra remembered that more clearly than anything after he ran away to Ixion. It was the thing that gave her hope. She could control pain. And she could follow him. So she’d practised. Hours with her arm twisted, or something sharp pressed into her skin; practised thinking and acting, despite hurt. And now was the time. The barge would be waiting at”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“What’s Ixion? she’d asked him. He’d laid his face close to hers, whispering so their parents couldn’t hear. Imagine a place where there are no Elders. No rules. No punishment. Only music and laughter and freedom. That’s Ixion, Ret. That’s me. Soon after,”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“Welcome aboard the way to Ixion: island of ever-night, ever-youth and never-sleep. Burn bright!’ He gave her a mock salute and disappeared along the long, shadowy deck towards the bridge, leaving her shivering over what she had done. At least the pain from her strip had ebbed, as if his icy hands had robbed it of heat. She could breathe again.”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
“The obedience strip began to glow at 1492 steps, and with it came the pain. A hundred steps before the fence. Stabbing then easing, then stabbing harder. Like a branding iron sizzling skin at first touch, then easing in a rush of endorphins, only to turn into an inescapable agony as it bit deeper into the skin. Retra knew how branding felt. Seal girls and boys received theirs at puberty. The strong ones didn’t make a sound when the hot iron bit their flesh. Retra hadn’t been strong. Then.”
― Marianne de Pierres, quote from Burn Bright
Marianne de Pierres
See more on GoodReads
“We think we grow old, we grow wise and more tolerant; we just grow more lazy.”
― John Fowles, quote from Daniel Martin
“It struck me that Lee was in many ways our true hero. Lee was the one who did the dirtiest jobs, quietly, without fuss, without going into big emotional scenes. He was so efficient, so reliable, so brave. Whenever we fell short, he made up the gap. I'm not just talking about the red hot moments, when enemy soldiers were shooting at us, when we were within a moment of death. I'm talking about the sourer times too, when we were so tired we could hardly remember to breathe, or we were so bored we'd pick at each other just for something to do, or so distressed we'd wish a soldier would come along and blow us into oblivion with an M16. At all those times Lee stood strong. He was like the Wirrawee grain silo. You could see the grain silo from miles away, tall and reliable. It stood for Wirrawee, and it gave you a safe comforting feeling to know it was there. That was how I'd felt about Lee during the war.”
― John Marsden, quote from The Other Side of Dawn
“Truth, they say, is a cold and bitter draught; few drink it undiluted.”
― Stephen R. Lawhead, quote from Byzantium
“The deepest yearning of human beings seems to be a constellation in which the two poles (motherliness and fatherliness, female and male, mercy and justice, feeling and thought, nature and intellect) are united in a synthesis, in which both sides of the polarity lose their antagonism and, instead, color each other.”
― Erich Fromm, quote from To Have or to Be? The Nature of the Psyche
“It always stimulates me to discover new examples of my own prejudice and stupidity, to realize that I don't know half as much as I think I do.”
― Paul Auster, quote from Oracle Night
Memories of Ice
Island
Fierce Invalids Home...
The Immortals of Mel...
Archangel's Kiss
V.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.
