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Joanne Harris

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Famous Joanne Harris Quotes

“The soft wind from the south-west calls in a voice like my mother's. Italy, it whispers. Greece. Corsica, Sardinia. Its name is Sirocco, Levante, Ostrale, and sometimes even Khamaseen, and it promises magic, and freedom, and love. But that cold, clean wind from the north-north-east has a chilly charm of its own: its name is Mistral, and it calls to me in a voice I think I know; a voice I first heard when I opened the map and saw the village with my name. The voice of an unknown future. Vianne or Mother? Which will it be?”

MotherChoicesWindsMistralVianne
Book:Vianne
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“This sweetness scooped like some bright fruit plum peach apricot watermelon perhaps from myself this sweetness It is a whimsical touch, which surprises and troubles me. That this stony and prosaic woman should in her secret moments harbor such thoughts. For she was sealed from us- from everyone- with such fierceness that I had thought her incapable of yielding. I never saw her cry. She rarely smiled, and then only in the kitchen with her palette of flavors at her fingertips, talking to herself (so I thought) in the same toneless mutter, enunciating the names of herbs and spices- cinnamon, thyme, peppermint, coriander, saffron, basil, lovage- running a monotonous commentary. See the tile. Has to be the right heat. Too low, the pancake is soggy. Too high, the butter fries black, smokes, the pancake crisps. I understood because I saw in our kitchen seminars the one way in which I might win a little of her approval, and because every good war needs the occasional amnesty. Country recipes from her native Brittany were her favorites; the buckwheat pancakes we ate with everything, the far breton and kouign amann and galette bretonne that we sold in downriver Angers with our goat's cheeses and our sausage and fruit.”

MotherSpicesHerbsRusticFrench Cooking
Book:Five Quarters of the Orange
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“That wind. I see it's blowing now. Furtive but commanding, it has dictated every move we've ever made. My mother felt it, and so do I - even here, even now - as it sweeps us like leaves into his backseat corner, dancing us to shreds against the stones. V'la l'bon vent, v'a l'joli vent. I though we'd silenced it for good. But the smallest thing can wake the wind@ a word, a sign, even a death. There's no such thing as a trivial thing. Everything costs; it all adds up until finally the balance shifts and we're gone again, back on the road, telling ourselves - well maybe next time”

WellsMadeMovingMotherNextFeltGoneWindBalanceCostStonesAddDancingCornersSmallestNext TimeBackseatTrivial ThingsMaybe Next Time
Author:Joanne Harris
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