“To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor.”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“Fate is by far the greatest mystery of all.”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“If you were a man, your ladyship, I would cordially horsewhip you for that remark.”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“I adored history, not the dry dates and boring battles, but the stories and the people who populated them.”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“From the first note I knew it was different from anything I had ever heard.... It began simply, but with an arresting phrase, so simple, but eloquent as a human voice. It spoke, beckoning gently as it unwound, rising and tensing. It spiraled upward, the tension growing with each repeat of the phrasing, and yet somehow it grew more abandoned, wilder with each note. His eyes remained closed as his fingers flew over the strings, spilling forth surely more notes than were possible from a single violin. For one mad moment I actually thought there were more of them, an entire orchestra of violins spilling out of this one instrument. I had never heard anything like it--it was poetry and seduction and light and shadow and every other contradiction I could think of. It seemed impossible to breathe while listening to that music, and yet all I was doing was breathing, quite heavily. The music itself had become as palpable a presence in that room as another person would have been--and its presence was something out of myth.”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“Life is too uncertain... You must seize happiness where you find it.”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“Without an expectation of success, one is rarely successful.”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“She left me then, surrounded by my extravagantly simple finery and I sat for a long time, uncomfortable both with the person I had been and the person I was finally becoming. Caught between the two of them, I felt rather lonely, as one often does with a new acquaintance.”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“Of course, he was absolutely correct, it was no concern of mine. So naturally I thought about it--excessively.”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“My face grew hot. "We were discussing the investigation," I told him quickly. "He was here a quarter of an hour at the most."
Father smiled at me sadly. "My dear girl, if you din't know what mischief can be gotten up to in a quarter of an hour you are no child of mine.”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“Did you mean what you said? You will pursue this?'
Brisbane sipped at his tea. 'I suppose. I have a few other matters that I must bring to conclusion, but nothing that cannot wait. And I have no other clients questioning either my integrity or my courage at present.”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“Brisbane put one in mind of wolves and lithe jungle cats, while Edward conjured images of seraphim and slim young saints. It required an entirely different aesthetic altogether to appreciate Brisbane, one that I lacked. Entirely.”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“No Julia necesitas aventuras. Necesitas un amante unas vacaciones en el extranjero. Tienes que cortarte el pelo y nadar desnuda en un río. Necesitas comer cosas que nunca hayas visto y hablar lenguajes que no conoces. Necesitas besar a un hombre que haga que te fallen las rodillas y que te acelere el corazón. -Portia”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“Apparently, he uses disguises sometimes in the course of his investigations. In his liaison with Mariah, he used them for discretion. He came to her once dressed as a chimney sweep. Quite invigorating, don't you think?”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“Yo no he dicho eso. Tiene usted el don de sacar el peor significado posible de mis palabras. Nicholas Brisbane”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“If you were a man, your ladyship, I would cordially horsewhip you for that remark. As you are not, I will simply bid you farewell and leave you to your fresh and obviously debilitating grief.' He said this last with a contemptuous glance at the Italian books piled on my desk and strode from the room.”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“Verá, doctor, los aristócratas somos como los funámbulos. No nos damos cuenta de lo que hay debajo de nosotros.-Julia Grey”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“No, Julia, you need adventure. You need a lover, a holiday abroad. You need to cut your hair and swim naked in a river. You need to eat things you have never even seen before and speak languages you do not know. You need to kiss a man who makes you feel like your knees have turned to water and makes your heart feel as though it would spring from your chest.”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“I am talking about seizing your life and truly living it before it is too late.”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
Deanna Raybourn
Born place: The United States
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“Adoption, I was to learn although not immediately, is hard to get right.
As a concept, even what was then its most widely approved narrative carried bad news: if someone "chose" you, what does that tell you?
Doesn't it tell you that you were available to be "chosen"?
Doesn't it tell you, in the end, that there are only two people in the world?
The ones who "chose" you?
And the other who didn't?
Are we beginning to see how the word "abandonment" might enter the picture? Might we not make efforts to avoid such abandonment? Might not such efforts be characterized as "frantic"? Do we want to ask ourselves what follows? Do we need to ask ourselves what words come next to mind? Isn't one of those words "fear"? Isn't another of those words "anxiety"?”
― Joan Didion, quote from Blue Nights
“With every new reading, I’m gripped by the ending’s harsh lessons. ‘Don’t expect anything of him,’ it seems to be telling me. ‘Even if someday he realizes his own folly, he is dangerous and beyond redemption. Get out!”
― quote from The Only Girl in the World: A Memoir
“Les livres sont comme la vie, Marcus. Ils ne se terminent jamais vraiment.”
― Joël Dicker, quote from La verdad sobre el caso Harry Quebert
“a large chifforobe wedged into a small closet that their mother said they’d have to pay Tom Robinson a nickel to bust up.”
― Karin Slaughter, quote from The Good Daughter
“Doesn’t everyone want to feel in the night
the beloved body, compass, polestar,
to hear the quiet breathing that says
I am alive, that means also
you are alive, because you hear me,
you are here with me”
― Louise Glück, quote from Averno
A Woman of No Import...
Darkness Visible
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Paradise Regained
The Hangman's Replac...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.
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