Melina Marchetta - On the Jellicoe Road (2006)

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I don't say anything and he casually leans against my desk, picking up the novel that's sitting there. "It's bullshit," he tells me, flicking through it. "There's no such thing as Atticus Finch." I shrug. "It'd be nice if there was, though.

Melina Marchetta
You know what? You didn't do anything wrong. I did. It's this dumb thing I do. I look into things and see more than I'm supposed to.

Melina Marchetta
Jonah Griggs. Not just a name but a state of mind I never want to revisit, although I do keep him at the back of my mind for those times I get me hopes raised about something. So then I can slap myself into reality and remind myself of what happens when you let someone into your sacred space. Jonah Griggs is my second reminder to never ever trust another human being. My mother was first.

Melina Marchetta
You're going to set us all on fire, you homicidal feral fruitcake.

Melina Marchetta
Guess what?' Fitz said. 'I don't know,' Jude said. 'What? Narnie smiled?' He glanced at her for the first time. 'When you guys see a Narnie smile, it's like a revalation,' Webb said, gathering her towards him. Jude stopped in front of her and, with both hands cupping her face, tried to make a smile. Narnie flinched. 'Leave her alone,' Tate said. 'I need a revelation,' Jude said. 'And you're the only one that can give me one, Narns.

Melina Marchetta
Someone asked us later, "Didn't you wonder why no one came across you sooner?" Did I wonder? When you see your parents zipped up in black body bags on the Jellicoe Road like they're some kind of garbage, don't you know? Wonder dies.

Melina Marchetta
We were playing Rock, Paper, Scissors," she told him once. "I was paper and she was rock so I lived and she died.

Melina Marchetta
Is a person worth more because they have someone to grieve for them?

Melina Marchetta
Unexpectedly, a fierce sense of protectiveness comes over me. Except I fight it back because I can hardly look after myself these days.

Melina Marchetta
Because being part of him isn't just anything. It's kind of everything.

Melina Marchetta
But you pashed Jonah Griggs and he's the leader of the enemy.

Melina Marchetta
It's called peaceful coexistence, Santangelo. You should try it and if it works we may sell the idea to the Israelis and Palestinians

Melina Marchetta
I walk down the steps of the verandah towards her and with shaking hands she holds my face between them, sobbing, "Look at my beautiful girl.

Melina Marchetta
We look at each other for a moment and for once I feel awkward. It's not that I'm not into humility; I've just never had to practise it.

Melina Marchetta
I'm frightened that one morning there will not be enough to keep me going.

Melina Marchetta
That someone can want something out of another person who gives absolutely nothing in return astounds me.

Melina Marchetta
No," I say, looking up at Griggs. "It's actually because my heart belongs to someone else." And if I could bottle the look on his face, I'd keep it by my bedside for the rest of my life.

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

Melina Marchetta
City people. They may know how to street fight but they don't know how to wade through manure.

Melina Marchetta
Girls under the age of fourteen are the most frightening creatures I have ever come across. - Jonah Griggs

Melina Marchetta
His father's made us paint half this town and if we stick around any longer he'll make us paint the rest of it." -Jonah Griggs

Melina Marchetta
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
I live on the Jellicoe Road. Where trees make canopies over-head and where you can sit at the top of them and see forever.

Melina Marchetta
"No chance. It'd be like cutting off our hands." "Then learn to live without your hands." "No, because then we won't be able to do this," Ben says, giving him the finger.

Melina Marchetta
I watch Raffy as she removes the pickles from her hamburger and hands them over to Santangelo without them exchanging a word and I realize again there is more to that relationship than spelling bees and being enemies. These people have history and I crave history. I crave someone knowing me so well that they can tell what I'm thinking.

Melina Marchetta