Quotes from The Whale Rider

“He loved them deeply, but sometimes love becomes a power game between the ambitions that parents have for their children and the ambitions that children have for themselves.”
― Witi Ihimaera, quote from The Whale Rider

“Der Mensch mag sein moko (Tätowierung) in die Erde tätowieren, aber sobald seine Wachsamkeit nachlässt, nimmt die Natur sich zurück, was er sich angeeignet hatte, um seine Eitelkeit zu befriedigen.”
― Witi Ihimaera, quote from The Whale Rider

“Even the good guys,' she said, 'can't win all the time.”
― Witi Ihimaera, quote from The Whale Rider

“... the love which Kahu received from Koro Apirana was the sort that dropped off the edge of the table, like breadcrumbs after everybody else has had a big meal.”
― Witi Ihimaera, quote from The Whale Rider

“Sometimes life has a habit of flooding over you and rushing you along in its overwhelming tide.”
― Witi Ihimaera, quote from The Whale Rider

“... sometimes love becomes a power game between ambitions that parents have for their children and the ambitions that children have for themselves.”
― Witi Ihimaera, quote from The Whale Rider

“Man might carve his mark on the earth but unless he's vigilant, Nature will take it all back.”
― Witi Ihimaera, quote from The Whale Rider

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Popular quotes

“I don’t belong here, David. Not yet. Maybe someday. If-- when Yasmine becomes Queen, she’ll need me, but for now, what Avalon really needs is someone in the human world, just like Jamison said. Someone to remind them how great humans really are. How great you really are,’ She added. ‘And I intend to do just that.’
‘Laurel?’
There was an edge of desperation in his voice, a deep sorrow she knew she had put there. ‘Yeah?’
He was quiet for a long time and Laurel wondered if he had changed his mind when he blurted, ‘We could have made it. If it hadn’t been for... for him, we would have had the real thing. Our whole lives. I truely believe that.’
Laurel smiled sadly. ‘Me too.’ She threw herself into David’s arms, pressing her cheek to his warm chest, the same way she’d hugged him countless times before. But there was something more in it, this time, as he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back. And she knew, despite the fact that she would see him everyday from now through graduation, that this was goodbye.
‘Thank you,’ she whispered. ‘For everything.’
A movement caught the corner of her eye; he was fat away, but she knew him in an instant. Tamani was struggling up the pathway on his own, hardly able to put one foot in front of the other. Even as she watched he stumbled and barely caught himself.
Laurel gasped and was on her feet in an instant. ‘I have to help him,’ she said.
David met her eyes and held her gaze for several seconds before he looked down and nodded. ‘Go,’ he said. ‘He needs you.’
‘David?’ Laurel said. ‘Sometimes...’ she tried to remember how Chelsea had explained it to her once. ‘Sometimes we’re busy looking at one thing, one... person... that we can’t see anything else. Maybe-- maybe it’s time for you to open your eyes and look around.’
That message delivered, Laurel whirled and headed for Tamani without a backward glance.

Chapter 27
‘Tamani!’ Laurel called, running to him.
He looked up and for a second, Laurel saw joy in his eyes. But then darkness clouded his expression. He blinked and looked down at the ground, running his fingers through his hair almost nervously.
Laurel tucked herself underneath his good arm, wanting to chide him for doing so much. Beneath her fingertips Laurel could feel no trace of Klea’s virulent toxin, which was encouraging, but his wounds were grevious on their own. ‘Are you alright?’
He shook hes head and his eyes looked haunted in a way she had never seen before. Yesterday she had been peripherally aware that he was pushing his emotions aside to accomplish the tasks before him. But here, with no one around bur Laurel, with no lives to save, he had let his defenses fo and allowed himself to really feel. And it showed. ‘No,’ he said, his voice shaking. ‘I’m not all right. And I don’t think I’m going to be alright for a long time. But I’ll live,’ he added after a brief pause.
‘Sit,’ Laurel said pulling him off the path to a patch of grass where a larege pine shaded them from not only the rising sun, but also from prying eyes. For just a moment, she wanted him all to herself. ’Where’s Chelsea?’
‘She’ll be here soon,’ he said wearily.
‘Where were you?’ She asked.
He was silent for a moment. ‘Shar’s house,’ he finally finally said, his voice cracking.
‘Oh, Tam,’ Laurel breathed, her hands gripping his shoulders.
‘It was his last request,’ Tamani said, one silent tear tracing down his face for an instant before he broke her gaze and rubbed it with his sleeve.
Laurel wanted to wrap her arms around him, to offer her shoulder for him to cry on, to soothe away those terrible lines on his forehead, but she didn’t know where to begin. ‘Tamani, what’s going on?’
Tamani swallowed, then shook his head. ‘I’ll get you back to California-- you’ll see. You, Chelsea, and David.’
‘But--’
‘But I’m not coming with you.’
‘You-- you have to,’ Laurel said, but Tamani was shaking his head.”
― Aprilynne Pike, quote from Destined

“Don’t do it. Don’t go to that job you hate. Do something you love today. Ride a roller coaster. Swim in the ocean naked. Go to the airport and get on the next flight to anywhere just for the fun of it. Maybe stop a spinning globe with your finger and then plan a trip to that very spot; even if it’s in the middle of the ocean you can go by boat. Eat some type of ethnic food you've never even heard of. Stop a stranger and ask her to explain her greatest fears and her secret hopes and aspirations in detail and then tell her you care because she is a human being. Sit down on the sidewalk and make pictures with colorful chalk. Close your eyes and try to see the world with your nose — allow smells
to be your vision. Catch up on your sleep. Call an old friend you haven’t seen in years. Roll up your pant legs and walk into the sea. See a foreign film. Feed squirrels. Do anything! Something! Because you start a revolution one decision at a time, with each breath you take. Just don’t go back to that miserable place you go every day. Show me it’s possible to be an adult and also be happy. Please. This is a free country. You don’t have to keep doing this if you don’t want to. You can do anything you want. Be anyone you want.”
― Matthew Quick, quote from Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock

“I know it's hard being a single mother baby, he said, but we're talking fundamentals here. Homemade cookies are one of the best parts of christmas. It's an absolute fundamental.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Strangers

“Are you seriously going to walk out of here right now after I just confessed my soul to you, cool as a cucumber, without reciprocating at all?”
“What?” I sent him a blank look. Then I rolled my eyes and reached out to ruffle his amazing hair. “Mason Lowe, if you don’t know by now that I’m attracted as hell to you, you’re freaking blind.”
He stared at me a moment before muttering, “There. Was that so hard to admit?”
― Linda Kage, quote from Price of a Kiss

“She had never paid much attention to the heart beating in her own chest. As she watched the pattern traced by Korsak's, she became aware of her own pulse. She had always taken her heartbeat for granted, and she wondered what it would be like, to hang on every beat, fearful that the next might not come. That the throb of life in her chest would suddenly go still.”
― Tess Gerritsen, quote from The Apprentice

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