The collection / 147 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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147 results · Page 3 of 7Play this collection ▷

01Undated

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 / quote

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02Undated

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 / quote

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03Undated

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 / quote

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04Undated

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 / quote

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05Undated

He could hardly breathe at the though of his son and Quintana in Sorel with no one to protect them.

Melina Marchetta / quote

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06Undated

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 / quote

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07Undated

There's not much you need to know about the world. Except how to use a sword and trust very few.

Melina Marchetta / quote

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08Undated

I remember passion.

Melina Marchetta / quote

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09Undated

...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 / quote

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10Undated

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 / quote

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11Undated

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 / quote

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12Undated

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 / quote

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13Undated

Our spirit is mightier than the filth of our memories.

Melina Marchetta / quote

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14Undated

I still wake with your name on my lips every morning.

Melina Marchetta / quote

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15Undated

How unladylike of you to mention such a thing.

Melina Marchetta / quote

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16Undated

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 / quote

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17Undated

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 / quote

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18Undated

People divulge things to you that they would not divulge to anyone else.

Melina Marchetta / quote

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19Undated

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 / quote

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20Undated

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 / quote

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21Undated

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 / quote

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22Undated

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 / quote

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23Undated

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 / quote

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24Undated

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 / quote

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