A Collection of Quotes

“…and we held each other in the dark hall and laughed, with the tears running down our cheeks and echoes of our laughter going up the ruined stairway to the sky.”

“I am on the moon, I thought, please let me be on the moon.”

“There had not been this many words sounded in our house for a long time, and it was going to take a while to clean them out.”

“I would not touch the ring; the thought of a ring around my finger always made me feel tied tight, because rings had no openings to get out of…”

“I watched her while she swept up the glass; today would be a glittering day, full of tiny sparkling things.”

“…the day fell apart around me. I saw Jonas in the doorway and Constance by the stove but they had no color. I could not breathe, I was tied around tight, everything was cold.”

“On the moon we wore feathers in our hair, and rubies on our hands. On the moon we had gold spoons.”

“Today my winged horse is coming and I am carrying you off to the moon and on the moon we will eat rose petals.”

“…I came into the kitchen, still trailing mist from the creek…”

“…we lay there together, protected from the rain by the trees crowding overhead, dim and rich in the kind of knowing, possessive way trees have of pressing closer.”

“All cat stories start with the statement: ‘My mother, who was the first cat, told me this,’ and I lay with my head close to Jonas and listened.”

“My niece is not hard-hearted; besides, she thought at the time that I was among them and although I deserve to die—we all do, do we not?—I hardly think that my niece is the one to point it out.”

“Their tongues will burn, I thought, as though they had eaten fire. Their throats will burn when the words come out, and in their bellies they will feel a torment hotter than a thousand fires.”

“I was pretending that I did not speak their language; on the moon we spoke a soft, liquid tongue, and sang in the starlight, looking down on the dead dried world…”

“I am living on the moon, I told myself, I have a little house all by myself on the moon.”

“I am walking on their bodies, I thought, we are having lunch in the garden and Uncle Julian is wearing his shawl.”

“…I wished they were all dead and I was walking on their bodies.”