Melina Marchetta quotes are thought-provoking, memorable and inspiring. From views on society and politics to thoughts on love and life, Melina Marchetta has a lot to say. In this list we present the 146 best Melina Marchetta quotes, in no particular order. Let yourself get inspired!
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Melina Marchetta quotes
It’s funny how you can forget everything except people loving you. Maybe that’s why humans find it so hard getting over love affairs. It’s not the pain they’re getting over, it’s the love.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
But grief makes a monster out of us sometimes . . . and sometimes you say and do things to the people you love that you can’t forgive yourself for.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
When I turn around, he cups my face in his hands and he kisses me so deeply that I don’t know who is breathing for who, but his mouth and tongue taste like warm honey. I don’t know how long it lasts, but when I let go of him, I miss it already.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
He is the most beautiful creature I have ever seen and it’s not about his face, but the life force I can see in him. It’s the smile and the pure promise of everything he has to offer. Like he’s saying, ‘Here I am world, are you ready for so much passion and beauty and goodness and love and every other word that should be in the dictionary under the word life?’ Except this boy is dead, and the unnaturalness of it makes me want to pull my hair out with Tate and Narnie and Fitz and Jude’s grief all combined. It makes me want to yell at the God that I wish I didn’t believe in. For hogging him all to himself. I want to say, ‘You greedy God. Give him back. I needed him here.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
When it was over, she gathered him in her arms. And told him the terrible irony of her life.That she had wanted to be dead all those years while her brother had been alive. That had been her sin.And this was her penance.Wanting to live when everyone else seemed dead.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
Some of us weren’t born for rewards, Froi. We were born for sacrifices.
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
It’s against the rules of humanity to believe there is nothing we can do.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
What if she’s all I give you in this life of ours, my love?” she asked quietly. “Then I’ll shout at the goddess in fury, ” he said fiercely. “I’ll beg to know why I’ve been given so much when other men have so little.
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
This is the best night of my life, ” Raffy says, crying.”Raffy, half our House has burnt down, ” I say wearily. “We don’t have a kitchen.””Why do you always have to be so pessimistic?” she asks. “We can double up in our rooms and have a barbecue every night like the Cadets.”Silently I vow to keep Raffy around for the rest of my life.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
Are you an idiot, or an idiot?’ Gargarin hissed.’The first one. I really resent being called the second.
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
What’s with what you’re wearing?” Griggs asks while we stand outside waiting for the others.”It’s pretty hideous, isn’t it?” I say.”Don’t force me to look at it, ” he says. “It’s see-through.”That kills conversation for a couple of seconds.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
I didn’t know you had a girlfriend, Griggs.” Anson Choi feigns surprise. “What’s her name?””I didn’t actually catch her name, ” Griggs continues.”Lily, ” Raffaela says over her shoulder and this time I give her a sideways look.”Great to know that I’m in love with a girl with a cool name.””It’s Taylor’s middle name, ” Raffaela calls back again.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
I can’t believe I said it out loud. The truth doesn’t set you free, you know. It makes you feel awkward and embarrassed and defenseless and red in the face and horrified and petrified and vulnerable. But free? I don’t feel free. I feel like shit.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
Truth is dangerous.
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
Don’t believe in God. Love the world just the way it is.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
It’s like you have a plan and someone comes along and makes you want to change it all, but you still like your first plan, no matter how fantastic the second one makes you feel.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
So what does the winner get in the end?” Tate asked.”They get to sit around with the losers and say, ‘I am King Xavier of the world.’ Repeat after me.””And me?” Tate asked.”You get to be my queen.””How come you’re the leader of the community?” Narnie asked, almost smiling. “Why can’t Tate be?”Webb looked at his sister, grinning. “Why can’t you, Narnie?”Fitz leaned his head on Narnie’s shoulder. “And I’ll be your queen?””You can be the eunuch, ” Jude said, shoving him out of the way, “and I’ll be her prince.” He bowed and took Narnie’s hand, kissing it, and their eyes met. It was awkward for a moment until Narnie looked away.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
Sir Topher finally looked up. “Because any hope beyond that, my boy, would be too much. I feared we would drown in it.””Then I choose to drown, ” Finnikin said. “In hope. Rather than float into nothing.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
Then I choose to drown. In hope. Rather than float into nothing.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
He hesitated, remembering something Finnikin had said to him on their journey. That somehow, even in the worst of times, the tiniest fragments of good survive. It was the grip in which one held those fragments that counted.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die.I counted.It happened on the Jellicoe Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La. We were going to the ocean, hundreds of miles away, because I wanted to see the ocean and my father said that it was about time the four of us made that journey. I remember asking, ‘What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?’ and my father said, ‘Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand, ‘ and that was the last thing he ever said.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
A piece of me is gone, ” she told me once while we were bra shopping. “I think we’re made up of all these different pieces and every time someone goes, you’re left with less of yourself.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
Do you want to know something about tyrants? When faced with death, they weep and they beg just like the rest of us.
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
Phaedra of Alonso’s death was a never-ending pain that gnawed at his insides. It made him a prisoner in his own cottage.
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
I wish everyone would stop crying, Tom. Uncle Joe would be so angry about it.” But she’s crying herself now. “He’d be so angry at us, Tom, for crying so much when all he did was laugh.
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
Was. What does was actually mean? The verb to be. Past tense of is. Does it mean that someone is no longer being?
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
Stani walks in later, glaring at them both.“Bloody bastards. One minute punching each other, next minute reading poetry. What’s wrong with everyone this week?”Tom can tell that
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
Worse still, he doesn’t know how to follow the piper anymore because it’s a path Tom has lost faith in.And the piper knows it. Tom can see it in his father’s eyes now. And the more he stares, the clearer it becomes.
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
But say he forgets about me or meets someone else or pretends I don’t exist.I look at her and then at Trini and Raffy.”Teresa, Teresa. Have we taught you nothing?” Raffy says in an irritated voice. “It’s war. You go in and you hunt him down until he realises that he’s made a mistake”Teresa looks hopeful.”It’s not as if men haven’t gone to war for dumber reasons” Trini adds.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
The music department is going to do a musical next year, ” he tells me, rolling his eyes like I would.Justine is running toward me, and I can tell by the look on her face that she’s found out about the musical, too.I sigh, shaking my head. “I have to give Justine a lesson in holding back, ” I tell him. “She’s just way too enthusiastic”.She grabs my arms in excitement. “We’re doing Les Mis.”I scream hysterically, clutching her as we jump up and down.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
Arjuro made a scoffing sound. ‘You think Lumatere will invade because of you? Are you that important?’Froi looked away. ‘Isaboe would invade if you kidnapped a servant, let alone a friend.’‘Isaboe? We’re on first-name terms with the Queen of Lumatere, are we?’ Gargarin asked.Froi found himself bristling. ‘What? Do you think I’m some cutthroat for hire who they found hanging around the palace walls with the words “I wantto kill a Charynite King” tattooed on my arse?
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
She knows that feeling too. Of believing that each time someone says her name, it’s to tell her that something bad has happened.
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
We approach the house and I wave at Jimmy. “And if he thinks he’s eating with us, he’s got another thing coming, ” my dad says.Jimmy approaches us and takes the shopping bags from me, looking inside them.”Lamb roast. Am I invited?
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
So I ring Justine Kalinsky and I say, “It’s Francesca Spinelli, ” and she says, “Francesca, you’ve got to stop using last names. How are you doing?” and I say “I feel like shit”, and I don’t know how it happens, but by eight o’clock that night I’m lying next to her on the couch with Siobhan and Tara and we’re eating junk food and watching a Keanu movie. And I want to stay on that couch for the rest of my life.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
Phaedra looked across the water and her eyes met Lucian’s. Their needs came second. It came from the privilege of being tr
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
Do you want to hang out? At your place or something?” Hanging out with Jimmy Hailler will mean that I have to say hello to him every day. I’m not ready to say hello to him every day. Too much commitment. It’s bad enough that I’m sharing chocolate brownies swith him. I shake my head. “Not today.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
The people I’m stuck with in my life now aren’t sucking the life out of me, they just suck.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
We’re not eight kingdoms, but an entire land with one heartbeat. It’s why people like you and I need to record our people’s stories so we can find those moments when our paths cross, and only then will we know true peace.
— Melina Marchetta, Ferragost
There’s nothing to took forward to any more if you don’t have dreams, ” he said. “Because dreams are goals and John might have run out of goals. So he died.
— Melina Marchetta
Mercy’, Finnikin said, grinning from ear to ear. ‘We’re going to have a bed full of children and I’ll have to holler out to my wife, “Hello there! It’s been a long time since we last spoke!
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
So I’m cruising down the road and the object of my thoughts is racing down the street, screaming that her father is a cop. A public servant, very flattering” ” I like a man in uniform” He laughed. ‘Do you like pizza?’ ‘What a ridiculous question. I suppose you’re going to ask me if I like pasta next?
— Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
It’s all rather political, mourning is.
— Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
When a woman has not received much flattery in her life, she will be seduced.
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
Play me something that makes me feel;This soul inside me is made of steel.Brain is breathing, but heart’s not beatingAnd, babe, I need you to make things real.Walk inside me without silence, Kill the past and change the tense.Empty gnawing and the ache is soaring;Take me places that make more sense.
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
Today this courtyard was filled with great warriors. What is more? But it was not filled with great men who have the heart to rule a kingdom. Any man can kill, Finnikin. It is a stroke, an action with one’s hand. But not every man knows how to lead.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
It’s against the rules of humanity to believe there is nothing we can do.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
Lucian’s father had warned him to fear idle men. Without the pride gained from a good day’s work, they were left to their vices and the doubts that crowded their head. Their hatred. Their envy.
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
If I had to wish for something, just one thing, it would be that Hannah would never see Tate the way I did. Never see Tate’s beautiful, lush hair turn brittle, her skin sallow, her teeth ruined by anything she could get her hands on that would make her forget. That Hannah would never count how many men there were, or how vile humans can be to one another. That she would never see the moments in my life that were full of neglect, and fear, and revulsion, moments I can never go back to because I know they will slow me down for the rest of my life if I let myself remember them for one moment. Tate, who had kept Hannah alive that night, reading her the story of Jem Finch and Mrs. Dubose. And suddenly I know I have to go. But this time without being chased by the Brigadier, without experiencing the kindness of a postman from Yass, and without taking along a Cadet who will change the way I breath for the rest of my life.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
The string slices into the skin of his fingers and no matter how tough the calluses, it tears. But this beat is fast and even though his joints are aching, his arm’s out of control like it has a mind of its own and the sweat tat drenches his hair and face seems to smother him, but nothing’s going to stop Tom. He;s aiming for oblivion.
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
The depression belongs to all of us. I think of the family down the road whose mother was having a baby and they went around the neighborhood saying, “We’re pregnant.” I want to go around the neighborhood saying, “We’re depressed.” If my mum can’t get out of bed in the morning, all of us feel the same. Her silence has become ours, and it’s eating us alive.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
And suddenly I know I have to go. But this time without being chased by the Brigadier, without experiencing the kindness of a postman from Yass, and without taking along a Cadet who will change the way I breath for the rest of my life.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
I think my family has come a long way. The sad thing is that so many haven’t. So many have stayed in their own little world. Some because they don’t want to leave it, others because the world around them won’t let them in.
— Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
He could hardly breathe at the though of his son and Quintana in Sorel with no one to protect them.
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
Men don’t rape women because their women are ugly, ” cousin Jostien said, but there was a protest at his words. “That’s what my fa said! He says that inside their hearts and spirits they are nothing but little men who need to feel powerful.
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
There’s not much you need to know about the world. Except how to use a sword and trust very few.
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
I remember passion.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
…I don’t believe you should be a virgin when you get married, ‘ Sera said. ‘You should experiment. Men do”Yes, but only if you’re in love with them, ‘ I said.
— Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
What about the contacts your mum had?” his dad asked.“I rang and spoke to four very polite computers who gave me all these options and then cut out on me. Then I tried the post office, because they were advertising, and I spoke to another computer. Very rude, that one. Don’t think it recognized ‘Are you shitting me?’ as an option.”“You know why that is?”“Why is that, Dominic?” Tom had asked drolly, because he knew he was going to be told why.“Because we don’t live in a society anymore, Tom. We live in an economy. We’re not citizens. We’re customers. That’s what this government’s done to us.
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
A different Australia emerged in the 1950s. A multicultural one, and 30 years on we’re still trying to fit in as ethnics and we’re still trying to fit the ethnics in as Australians.
— Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
I don’t despise you for what you allowed to happen to me. I despise you because when I was released, you refused to be found and I needed you more than anything in my life. Not to mend my broken bones, Arjuro. I needed my brother to mend my broken spirit.
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
Our spirit is mightier than the filth of our memories.
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
I still wake with your name on my lips every morning.
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
How unladylike of you to mention such a thing.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
He knows bad days. Bad days take him completely by surprise. They make him not trust the good days because it’s likely something is lurking twenty-four hours away.
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
It still amazes him how they could have been misled by her personality in Year Eleven. It’s what depression does to a person, it changes them completely.
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
People divulge things to you that they would not divulge to anyone else.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
She made a sound of regret. ‘We come second, you and I, Luc-ien, ’ she said. ‘Our allegiance is always to our kingdoms. Without that allegiance, our people would fall.’She placed her head back against his chest and he felt her tears. ‘This is not our time.’‘But that will never mean I love you less, ’ he said.
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
Oh, you’ve outdone me twice now, you queen of forgiveness. The ring’s a promise of peace and I’m greedy with hope. It’s a song that we sing in a tongue that we share. And though you say it’s a gift from a king to a king, I say it’s a sign from a queen to a queen.
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
In the games of queens and kings, we leave our dreams at the door and we make do with what we have. Sometimes if we’re fortunate, we still manage to have a good life.
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
Then he holds her and for a moment I hear total silence; that totally silent part of a cry that announces that the most horrible grief is going to follow. And it does, and he’s muffling it, but I can hear and I want someone to come over and jab her with a sedative because its pitch pierces my soul.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
They always prided themselves on looking youthful. “Forty’s the new thirty, ” they’d joke.Until heartbreak and grief enter your life, and then forty’s the new one hundred.
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
Do not cry, ” she said fiercely, but her own tears flowed. “Do not cry, Finnikin. For if we begin, our tears will never end.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
The boy in the tree sobs uncontrollably when I tell him about the Hermit and my mother, yet his eyes light up each time I mention Hannah. And every single time he asks, “Taylor, what about the Brigadier who came searching for you that day? Whatever became of him?” I try to explain that the Brigadier is of no importance to my story, but he always shakes his head as if he knows better.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
Each day, at the same time, Jude would return and they would be there, led by Webb, whose life could not have been more different than his. Where Webb’s memories of childhood were idyllic and earthy, Jude’s reeked of indifference. Webb read fantasy; Jude read realism. Webb believed a tree house was the perfect place for gaining a different perspective on the world; Jude saw it as perfect for surveillance and working out who or what was a threat to them. They argued about sport codes and song lyrics. Jude saw the rain-dirty valley; Webb saw Brigadoon. Yet, despite all this, they connected, and the nights they spent in the tree house discussing their brave new worlds and not so brave emotions made everything else in their lives insignificant. Somehow the world of Webb and Fitz and Tate and Narnie became the focus of Jude’s life.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
Simple dreams are the hardest to come true
— Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
How can you just forget a person completely until the moment you see his face again?
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
Lucian was beginning to get used to hearing her small observations at night. More than anything, he realized he liked her voice in the dark. It made him feel less lonely.
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
We didn’t let them do anything to us, Travanion, ” Beatriss said fiercely, “They did it without out permission.
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
I need voices of reason and of hysteria and of empathy. I need to have an Alanis moment. I need advice from Elizabeth Bennett. I need Tim Tams and comfort food.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
I miss the Stella girls telling me what I am. That I’m sweet and placid and accommodating and loyal and nonthreatening and good to have around. And Mia. I want her to say, “Frankie, you’re silly, you’re lazy, you’re talented, you’re passionate, you’re restrained, you’re blossoming, you’re contrary.”I want to be an adjective again. But I’m a noun. A nothing. A nobody. A no one.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
Are you calling us pigs?’ Froi asked, watching as Rafuel winced for the tenth time at the formality of Froi’s Charyn.Rafuel thought for a moment and then nodded.‘Actually yes, I am. Pig-like.’Froi turned back to Trevanion and Perri, who were discussing the need for longbow training in the rock village.‘What is it?’ Perri asked Froi.‘He said we eat like pigs.’Trevanion and Perri thought about it for a moment and then went back to their conversation.
— Melina Marchetta
If you close your eyes, you get to control your own darkness.
— Melina Marchetta
The gods do make playthings of us. But it is we mortals who provide them with tools.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
God knows what possessed me, but having that science book in my hand propelled me to immediate action. So I hit her with it.
— Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
Because without our language, we have lost ourselves. Who are we without our words?
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
In the end, the sum of my vices is all me.
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
Tom always did anger well. Hid it well, but showed it even better
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
Just ask how I’m feeling, I want to say. Just ask and I may tell you.But no one does.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
You can’t go around feeling too much.
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
Maybe memories should be left the way they are.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
For reasons he couldn’t understand a sadness came over him and it was then he saw the girl standing on the other side of the dirt road, her eyes pools of absolute sorrow, her light brown hair glowing in the splinters of sunlight that forced their way through the trees.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
He’s my father!” she bellowed, pointing to Trevanion.”Vestie!” Beatriss said firmly, stopping to stare up at her. “I’ll snip at the tongue if I ever see it in such a way again! Trevanion, speak to her.”Vestie hung her head, shamefaced.”Vestie, ” he said, his voice still gentle.”Yes, Father.””Shout it out louder, my love. Shout it out louder.
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
Sometimes you don’t let us talk about how we’re feeling. If we feel scared, you say, ‘Nothing to worry about, guys, ‘ but that doesn’t make it go away. It makes it grow.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
We have a dilemma, then, ” Finnikin said fiercely. “Because I prayed that you would grow old and hold my children in your arms as you held me. My prayers have not been answered yet, Trevanion. So whose prayer is more worthy? Yours or mine?
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
When one is silent, those around speak even more, my lord.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
He took my hand, made me stand on the branch and asked, “What can you see from here?” “Nothing” I said, “Know what I can see? From this distance everything is so bloody perfect”.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
Do you miss being friends with Santangelo?” I ask her after the lights are out and we’re almost asleep.”What makes you think were friends?””Everything.”I hear her yawn.”Being enemies with him is better.” she tells me. There’s a long pause and I think she’s going to say something more but she doesn’t and it’s just silence for a long while.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
Mama says that satisfaction isn’t what I should search for. Respect is. Respect?I detest that word. Probably because in this world you have to respect the wrong people for the wrong reasons.
— Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
If there was one weapon he had against these savages, it was not acknowledging their existence.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
In an instant he forgot Joe’s poem about Japan except the part about ‘you are the bell, and I am the tongue of the bell, ringing you, ‘ and a new sound entered his life, like when he was a kid and he first heard the sound of horses clip-clopping and he asked his mother in wonder, “What’s that sound, because I’ve never heard it before?
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
I’m scared to die, ” I whispered as Michael walked in.”He was scared to live, ” he said kissing my forehead.
— Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
I’ve been waiting for you all night and day, ‘ she said.Froi shivered. He realised that the words came from Quintana the ice maiden. Realised, as he felt his face heating up, that the idea of this Quintana waiting for him with excitement spoke to parts of him he believed to be dormant. And then she winked.’Did I do that right?’ she asked. Her smile was lopsided and he saw a glimpse of the teeth.And Froi imagined that he would follow her to the ends of the earth.
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
Somehow, even in the worst of times, the tiniest fragments of good survive. It was the grip in which one held those fragments that counted.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
He just watched the way Finnikin’s hands rested on Evanjalin’s neck and he rubbed his thumb along her jaw and the way his tongue seemed to disappear inside her mouth as if he needed a part of her to breathe himself.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
And at that moment Jude thought something that he would never forgive himself for.He wished that he had never met any of them.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
As he left Yata’s home that morning, he knew that a part of his life was complete and that whatever path he chose, he would experience the ache of unfulfilled dreams. For a moment he allowed himself to feel regret at the thought of never building a cottage by the river with Trevanion. Or living the life of a simple farmer connected to the earth. Or traveling his kingdom, satisfying the nomad he had become. To be Finnikin of the Rock and the Monts and the River and the Flatlands and the Forest. To be none of those at all.Yet he also knew that to lose her to another man would be a slow torture every day for the rest of his life.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
But I want to give in to it sometimes, only because I’m tired and the feeling that I’ve had for a while-that something is haunting me down-becomes all consuming and I’m frightened that one morning there will be not enough to keep me going.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
If she allowed herself to give in to the whole sadness of it, she’d never ever be able to operate like a normal person again.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
The pages aren’t numbered, so I don’t know whether I have the beginning or end or whether it’s in sequence but these days I’m not really looking for continuity.All I’m after is something that makes sense to me.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
It’s Thursday afternoon, and we have sports. These are the choices for the girls: watching an invitational cricket game; studying in one of the classrooms; or watching the senior rugby league. As you can imagine, I’m torn.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
I hope you’re not smoking in front of her, ‘ Lucia says to him.’Yeah, I lie in bed and puff in her face, Lucia, ‘ he says, irritated.
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
I never thought meeting you would be this boring. I thought we’d put our Italian emotion into gear and scream the place down. I never expected indifference.
— Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
I met this boy here who I knew as a kid and his mum left him with a pedophile for two weeks when he was eight years old and I’m presuming you know everything there is to know about Jonah’s father, and that my father is dead, and my mother hasn’t been around for years, and God knows Jessa’s real story. So what I’m saying here, Sergeant, is that we’re just a tad low on the reliable adult quota so you have no right to be all self-righteous about what Chaz did and if you’re going to go around not talking to him when his only crime was wanting me to have what he has, then I think you’re going to turn out to be a bit of a dud and you know something? I’m just a bit over life’s little disappointments right now. Do you understand what I’m saying?
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
I hear Mr. Palmer tell Hannah that it was an electrical fault. Five arsonists in one school and it ends up being something so technically boring.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
But then Froi looked back to where his work lay unfinished and it made him sad because there had been something about the touch of earth in his hands that made him feel worthwhile.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
But Froi looked around with wonder. As if he had never seen the world from up so high before.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
I determine my own worth. If I had to rely on others, I’d have lain down and died waiting.
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
If Froi understood anything, it was that in this world one’s worth came from others.
— Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles
Because today, I think I’m leaning on the side of wonder.
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
Hannah, do you think that your mum and dad and Tate’s mum and dad and my mum and dad and Webb and Tate are all together someplace?’ she asks earnestly. I look at Hannah, waiting for the answer. And then she smiles. Webb once said that a Narnie smile was a revelation and, at this moment, I need a revelation. And I get one. ‘I wonder, ‘ Hannah says.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
His voice is deep and gravelly. I once heard one of the girls say that he had the voice of a sex god, but because I’ve never really heard what a sex god sounds like, I can’t verify that.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
And won’t he grow up to be the healthiest of young men, all because she kept him safe? Ready for the world. Ready to one day conquer it. To travel. Get on a train. Go to work. Get blown out of her life.Maybe she should be having that glass of wine and cigarette after all.
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
Does it help?” he asks. “The e-mailing.”She nods. “A tiny bit. It’s strange. You’re writing a letter to someone who’s never going to read it, so it kind of frees you up a bit.
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
she could have dropped you both off. whar’s the worst she can do? cry hysterically?”the gears on the ute get stuck at the lights and will pushes tom’s hand out of the way and and shoves it into the correct gear.”it wasn’t her” he mutters after a moment.”sorry?” tom says.”she didn’t cry””then what?”it’s too quiet except for the quiet for the crap engine sounding like a lawn mower.”i cried”luca bursts out laughing beside will.”yeah, well i did” will says. “And it’s not the thing you want to do in front of a bunch on engineers.
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
Just say up on the hill is the meaning of life and someone knew it and they wanted everyone else to enjoy it. So they put a red vinyl sofa up there.
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
At times it’s like sadness has planted itself on her face, refusing to leave, an overwhelming sadness, and sometimes I see despair there, too.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
I’ve wept enough in my life. I have no tears left.
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
But grieving people are selfish. They won’t let you comfort them and they say you don’t understand and they make you feel useless when all your life you’ve been functional to them.
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
Promise me you’ll never stop dreaming.
— Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
I’d run you know. It’s like when you’re really busy doing something and you don’t have time to think about things. Well, I’d run and run and run so I couldn’t think.
— Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
He bursts out laughing. It’s short, as if he regretted allowing me to make him laugh, but the satisfaction’s already mine.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
This is what I know. I look like my father. My father disappeared when he was seventeen years old. Hannah once told me that there is something unnatural about being older than your father ever got to be. When you can say that at the age of seventeen, it’s a different kind of devastating.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
The gods whispered to you once, Finnikin. And you listened. But they are proud and refuse to speak to those who do not believe that there is something out there mightier than the minds and intellect of mortals.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
She and me? We the same in some fings. We live. The others, those orphan kids, they dead. Because she and me, we want to live and we do anyfing to make that happen. That’s the difference between us and the others.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
Even five minutes of your time can make someone’s day
— Melina Marchetta, The Piper’s Son
It’s not as if he’s good-looking, because he’s not. Sometimes he’s so plain that he looks bland. But it’s his voice and his mannerisms that fill him with some kind of color. I listen to his voice and its resonance hooks me in. The worry lines on his forehead, his expression when he twists his face into a smile, and the way his whole face lights up when he laughs those short bursts of laughter.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
Imagine the state of one’s mind if they were to recall its details. All those months cocooned and then the onslaught of this ugly world. Lights and noise and strangeness. It’s no wonder we scream with terror at our birth.
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
Why question what Froi of Lumatere was doing here?’ he asked.’ When you should be questioning what would have happened to Charyn if he hadn’t been here. Who else would have saved Gargarin of Abroi from the street lords? … ‘Who would have saved Quintana of Charyn from hanging? Who would have rescued her from Tariq of Lascow’s compound? Who would have sent her to a safe place to birth the cursebreaker? Blah, blah, blah. I’m bored now, ‘ Finnikin said, looking around.
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
I trace his face with my fingers, ‘Let me see. A guy tells me that he would have thrown himself in front of a train if it wasn’t for me and then drives seven hours straight, without whingeing once, on a wild-goose chase in search of my mother with absolutely no clue where to start. He is, in all probability, going to get court-martialled because of me, has put up with my moodiness all day long, and knows exactly what to order me for breakfast. It doesn’t get any more romantic than that, Jonah.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
Do you love me?’ he asked instead. ‘Because if you don’t, I’d wait until you did. I’d wait weeks and months and years.
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
Fifteen minutes later I was an expert. That’s all you need. I think I was even getting the upper hand, which is very simple with a guy. Anything seems to turn them on.
— Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
One of Sir Topher’s rules was to never indulge in sentimentality, never return for what was left behind.
— Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock
Josie, life is not a Mills and Boon book. People fall out of love. People disappoint other people and they find it very hard to forgive.
— Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
And we all end up where we started
— Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
City people. They may know how to street fight but they don’t know how to wade through manure.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
Up in the distance the whistle of the wind sang to her from the mountain. From Lucian’s mountain. It beckoned and taunted and she wanted to run towards it. To be enveloped in its coat of fleece and to hear its safe sounds.
— Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn
You blame me for this, don’t you?” he says.”I don’t need to. You’re doing a better job.
— Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca
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