Melina Marchetta - Finnikin of the Rock (2008)

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You grab at any sign of hope. You grab it with both hands and breathe life into it, day after day. You do anything to keep it alive.

Melina Marchetta
Because without our language, we have lost ourselves. Who are we without our words?

Melina Marchetta
He knew that a part of his life was complete and that whatever path he chose, he would experience the ache of unfulfilled dreams.

Melina Marchetta
All I need to understand is the unwritten law of warriors," he said firmly. "And women and children are never sent to do our work without our protection." He pointed to the trees, emphatically. "That's the language I share with them.

Melina Marchetta
See them together and you will feel a force that will take your breath away.

Melina Marchetta
Never underestimate the value of knowing another's language. It can be far more powerful than swords and arrows.

Melina Marchetta
Woman, I'm trying to fight here! Or has that escaped your attention?

Melina Marchetta
She gently placed his hand against the beating pulse of her heart. Always, always it beat out of control, and he held his hand to it until he felt it perfectly match his.

Melina Marchetta
He knows no other way but ugliness, Sir Topher said quietly. He was taught no other lessons but those of force. His teachers have been scum who live by their own rules. No one has ever taught him otherwise. Am I to forgive? she said, her voice shaking with anger. No, he said sadly. Pity him. Or give him new rules. Or put him down like a wild animal before he becomes a monster who destroys everything he encounters.

Melina Marchetta
Finn, listen!" Trevanion said, his voice raw."I prayed to see you one more time. It's all I prayed for. Nothing more. And my prayers were answered. Go east, I'll lend them west." "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
A blind man can see what she feels for you and you for her. Your souls are not merely entwined; they are fused.

Melina Marchetta
I do not believe that the desires of young boys cause catastrophic events. The actions of humans do.

Melina Marchetta
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
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
There are worse things than a lie and there are better things than the truth!

Melina Marchetta
Someone had to be blamed. Someone had to die. (...) What you can't understand, you destroy.

Melina Marchetta
He watched as Finnikin swung onto the horse, his sleeve stained with blood. Froi liked the way Finnikin reached behind him and took Evanjalin's hand, placing it around his waist. It made everything seem normal because Finnikin always wanted to touch her.

Melina Marchetta
It's against the rules of humanity to believe there is nothing we can do.

Melina Marchetta
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
If she's out here and not locked up in the barracks, I'll know, he said. He took a deep breath and whistled. You share a whistle? Trevanion said in disbelief. Do you have a problem with that? Finnikin asked. I have a few whistles, Lucian murmured. Very confusing sometimes. Whistles are meant for combat, Trevanion said. Not wooing women. Women do not understand whistles.

Melina Marchetta
My mother, unlike yours, never exchanged sexual favors for a piece of silver," he said, addressing the first insult by banging the boy's head against the trunk of the tree. "And," he said with another resounding thump, "although I'm very familiar with that part of the female body, I take offense at being labeled one.

Melina Marchetta
Be prepared for the worst, my love, for it lives next door to the best.

Melina Marchetta
You list the dead. You tell the stories of the past. You write about the catastrophes and the massacres. What about the living, Finnikin? Who honors them?

Melina Marchetta
If there was one weapon he had against these savages, it was not acknowledging their existence.

Melina Marchetta
One of Sir Topher's rules was to never indulge in sentimentality, never return for what was left behind.

Melina Marchetta