Truth is dangerous.

— Melina Marchetta

Up in the distance the whistle of the wind sang to her from the mountain. From Lucian’s mountain. It beckoned and taunted, and she wanted to run towards it. To be enveloped in its coat of fleece and to hear its safe sounds.

— Melina Marchetta

Was. What does was actually mean? The verb to be. Past tense of us. Does it mean that someone is no longer being?

— Melina Marchetta

We approach the house and I wave at Jimmy. "And if he thinks he's eating with us, he's got another thing coming," my dad says. Jimmy approaches us and takes the shopping bags from me, looking inside them." Lamb roast. Am I invited?

— Melina Marchetta

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

— Melina Marchetta

We have a dilemma, then,” Mannikin 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, Creation. So whose prayer is more worthy? Yours or mine?

— Melina Marchetta

We’re not eight kingdoms, but an entire land with one heartbeat. It’s why people like you and I need to record our people’s stories so we can find those moments when our paths cross, and only then will we know true peace.

— Melina Marchetta

What about the contacts your mum had?” his dad asked.“I rang and spoke to four very polite computers who gave me all these options and then cut out on me. Then I tried the post office, because they were advertising, and I spoke to another computer. Very rude, that one. Don’t think it recognized ‘Are you shitting me?’ as an option.”“You know why that is?”“Why is that, Dominic?” Tom had asked drolly, because he knew he was going to be told why.“Because we don’t live in a society anymore, Tom. We live in an economy. We’re not citizens. Furthermore, we’re customers. That’s what this government’s done to us.

— Melina Marchetta

What if she's all I give you in this life of ours, my love?" she asked quietly. "Then I'll shout at the goddess in fury," he said fiercely. "I'll beg to know why I've been given so much when other men have so little.

— Melina Marchetta

What's with what you're wearing?" Griggs asks while we stand outside waiting for the others." It's pretty hideous, isn't it?" I say." Don't force me to look at it," he says. "It's see-through." That kills conversation for a couple of seconds.

— Melina Marchetta