Jacqueline Rayner · 249 pages
Rating: (5.1K votes)
“Because she deserved more than me. She deserved someone who could give her the whole universe.”
“He took her by the hand and led her out of the control room and into a little side room. There, amid a lot of sculpting paraphernalia, was her statue. The statue from the museum. The statue of Fortuna. New and gleaming.
Rose gaped. 'But I never posed for this.'
'No need,' said the Doctor, patting it on the arm -- an arm which still had a hand attached.
'What d'you mean?'
'I mean,' he explained, 'that you won't have to pose for it. As Mickey said -' the Doctor smiled to himself - 'it was sculpted by someone who knew you pretty well.'
He ran a hand through his hair and looked as though he was expecting applause.
Rose walked round the statue. 'Is my bum really that--'
'Yes,' the Doctor interrupted testily. 'This statue is accurate in every detail. Bum. Arms. Legs. Nose. Broken fingernail on your right hand.'
* * *
Rose stood looking at the statue for a bit longer. 'It is perfect,' she said at last.
'I was inspired.'
They smiled at each other. All was right with the world again.”
“Rose wasn't 'ordinary'. What was I supposed to do? Wrap her in cotton wool? Tell her 'Here, I could give you the universe, but I'm not going to in case you get hurt? There's all this stuff out there, all these planets, all these wonders, but I want you to stay at home and work in a shop?”
“Ursus stepped forward. 'Watch your tongue when you speak to the goddess!' he snarled.
The Doctor frowned. 'I think that would make speaking rather difficult,' he said.He stuck his tongue out and crossed his eyes to look down on it. 'Therterly inghockigal.' he said.”
“He saw the statue - she shrank back as he hurried forward. And then he realized it wasn't her. Rose was taken aback. She hadn't known - how could she know - what her disappearence had done to him. This Doctor had a look of such despair in his eyes that her heart almost stopped in pity. She wanted more than anything else to go to him, tell him that everything was going to be alright. But... what with possibly ripping time and space apart, that was probably a bad idea. ”
“Aside from being terrifying, it was totally humiliating. Rose Tyler, Barbie doll.”
“The Doctor gave a modest shrug. "Well, I must admit that I made heads turn wherever I go. It's a burden that I just have to live with.”
“This is the goddess Fortuna. She brought luck - or took it away. But you'd put up with whatever she did. Because when she decided to favour you, it made everything worthwhile”
“Elves, pixies, gnomes- the Moomins, Chorlton and the Wheelies, SpongeBob SquarePants- they all tried to invade you at some point.”
“Do you know what it's like," he said, "to feel that you're in the wrong body?"
"Well actually..." the Doctor began, wiggling his own fingers in front of his face.”
“A trapdoor had slammed open at the edge of the arena, followed by another and another. Slowly, reluctantly, animals were forced through the gaps. Lions, tigers, bears. "Oh my!" said the Doctor, as the trapdoors slammed shut again.”
“Time is, to put it in its most impressive and some might say poncy-sounding form, my domain. I can see things that once happened, even if they haven't happened any more. Well, if I concentrate. The new reality-the real reality- keeps asserting itself, even with me. But the other time line leaves echoes, ripples, if you look hard enough.”
“Who would condescend to strike down the mere things that he does not
fear? Who would debase himself to be merely brave, like any common
prizefighter? Who would stoop to be fearless--like a tree? Fight the
thing that you fear. You remember the old tale of the English clergyman
who gave the last rites to the brigand of Sicily, and how on his
death-bed the great robber said, 'I can give you no money, but I can
give you advice for a lifetime: your thumb on the blade, and strike
upwards.' So I say to you, strike upwards, if you strike at the stars.”
“I give Iggy credit for deconstructing the very idea of entertainment.”
“with loyalty oaths waving as weapons in the hands of the know-nothing right, the values of liberal education seemed to hang in the balance in 1952.”
“Rimmel: I finally accepted the fact I was really struggling today, and with that acceptance, it became a little easier to breathe.”
“It's sometimes quite astonishing that a single, average life is enough to encompass so much that it's at all possible ever to have any success in one's work here.”
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