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

God knows what possessed me, but having that science book in my hand propelled me to immediate action. So I hit her with it.

— Melina Marchetta

Hannah, do you think that your mum and dad and Tate's mum and dad and my mum and dad and Webb and Tate are all together someplace?' she asks earnestly. I look at Hannah, waiting for the answer. And then she smiles. Webb once said that a Arnie smile was a revelation and, at this moment, I need a revelation. And I get one. 'I wonder,' Hannah says.

— Melina Marchetta

He bursts out laughing. It's short, as if he regretted allowing me to make him laugh, but the satisfaction's already mine.

— Melina Marchetta

He could hardly breathe at the though of his son and Quintana in Sore with no one to protect them.

— Melina Marchetta

He hesitated, remembering something Mannikin had said to him on their journey. That 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

He is the most beautiful creature I have ever seen, and it's not about his face, but the life force I can see in him. It's the smile and the pure promise of everything he has to offer. Like he's saying, 'Here I am world, are you ready for so much passion and beauty and goodness and love and every other word that should be in the dictionary under the word life?' Except this boy is dead, and the unnaturalness of it makes me want to pull my hair out with Tate and Arnie and Fitz and Jude's grief all combined. It makes me want to yell at the God that I wish I didn't believe in. For hogging him all to himself. I want to say, 'You greedy God. Give him back. I needed him here.

— Melina Marchetta

He just watched the way Mannikin’s hands rested on Evangeline’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

He knows bad days. Bad days take him completely by surprise. They make him not trust the good days because it's likely something is lurking twenty-four hours away.

— Melina Marchetta

He's my father!" she bellowed, pointing to Creation." Vestie!" Beatrice said firmly, stopping to stare up at her. "I'll snip at the tongue if I ever see it in such a way again! Creation, speak to her." Vestie hung her head, shamefaced." Vestie," he said, his voice still gentle." Yes, Father."" Shout it out louder, my love. Shout it out louder.

— Melina Marchetta