Melina Marchetta

The gods do make playthings of us. But it is we mortals who provide them with tools.

If you close your eyes, you get to control your own darkness.

Are you calling us pigs?_ Froi asked, watching as Rafuel winced for the tenth time at the formality of Froi__ Charyn.Rafuel thought for a moment and then nodded.__ctually yes, I am. Pig-like.__roi turned back to Trevanion and Perri, who were discussing the need for longbow training in the rock village.__hat is it?_ Perri asked Froi.__e said we eat like pigs.__revanion and Perri thought about it for a moment and then went back to their conversation.

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.

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.

We didn't let them do anything to us, Travanion," Beatriss said fiercely, "They did it without out permission.

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.

How can you just forget a person completely until the moment you see his face again?

Simple dreams are the hardest to come true

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.

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, __aylor, 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.

Do not cry,_ she said fiercely, but her own tears flowed. __o not cry, Finnikin. For if we begin, our tears will never end.

They always prided themselves on looking youthful. __orty__ the new thirty,_ they__ joke.Until heartbreak and grief enter your life, and then forty__ the new one hundred.

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.

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__e fortunate, we still manage to have a good life.

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.

She made a sound of regret. __e come second, you and I, Luc-ien,_ she said. __ur allegiance is always to our kingdoms. Without that allegiance, our people would fall.__he placed her head back against his chest and he felt her tears. __his is not our time.___ut that will never mean I love you less,_ he said.

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