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Helen Dunmore Quotes

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All Death Breath Caring Childhood Choices Circular Difference Makers Dolphins Dying Grief

Famous Helen Dunmore Quotes

“I did not know what breath meant until she died. It was everything that gave me quickness and life: it was thought, feeling, animation. Without it there was nothing.”

Life Death Dying Breath

Book:Birdcage Walk

Source: Birdcage Walk

“Scars don't matter, little one. They are the marks of the battles we have won.”

Victory Survival Overcoming Obstacles

Book:The Deep

Source: The Deep

“For you where never my blood sister so no more shall I call you little sister”

Sad Caring Happy

Book:The Crossing of Ingo

Source: The Crossing of Ingo

“Mammie was out there in the dark and cold. No one would ever bring her in, to warm and dry and cherish her. There was rain seeping through the earth and into her coffin. Water gets everywhere. It finds a way, no matter how tight the carpenter dovetails his joints. When rain spattered on the windows I could never run to open the door for her, to take off her cloak to dry it by the fire, kneel to take off her boots. She was part of the cold darkness. She would never come in. And here I was, still putting food into my mouth and swallowing it. I lay bound, as heavy as if I too had the weight of six feet of earth above me.”

Book:Birdcage Walk

Source: Birdcage Walk

“Some things, if you don't do them, they follow you all your life, whispering in your ear," says Granny Carne. She faces me sternly as if she's judging me. "You'll find a dozen good reasons why you pulled back from the Call, and you'll even fool yourself that you had no other choice. But in your bed at night you'll curse yourself for a coward.”

Book:The Crossing of Ingo

Source: The Crossing of Ingo

“It's so respectable you could put it in a Christmas circular letter.”

Respectable Letter Circular Round Robin

Author:Helen Dunmore

“Childhood is a slum and they love it.”

Book:Your Blue-Eyed Boy

Source: Your Blue-Eyed Boy

“I've known for a long time about dolphins getting caught in nets and drowning there. But knowing is not the same as seeing it with your own eyes. I feel heavy, sad and responsible.”

Book:The Crossing of Ingo

Source: The Crossing of Ingo

“It's not evil that separates Earth and Ingo; it's difference. But there are plenty who want to make evil out of difference.”

Difference Makers

Book:The Deep

Source: The Deep