"It was the sibling thing, I suppose. I was fascinated by the intricate tangle of love and duty and resentment that tied them together. The glances they exchanged; the complicated balance of power esta..."
- Kate Morton
"Mrs. Bird smiled at me as I arrived at her side. "They can surprise us, can't they, our parents? The things they got up to before we were born.""Yes," I said. "Almost like they were real people once."
"That, my dear, is what makes a character interesting, their secrets."
"I blame what happened next on the door. The one right across the hall from me, a mere three feet away. I love doors. All of them, without exception. Doors lead to things and I’ve never met one I haven..."
"Ah, my darling. But there is no such thing [as a nice safe history]."
"Nell was like a witch. Her long silvery hair rolled into a bun on the back of her head, the narrow wooden house on the hillside in Paddington, with its peeling lemon-yellow paint and overgrown garden,..."
"Tragedy has been described as 'the conflict between desire and possibility.' Following this definition, is The Forgotten Garden a tragedy? If so, in what way/s?"
"it was enough just to free the words so that the voices in her head were stilled."
"Even the most pragmatic person fell victim at times to a longing for something other."
"Loneliness had made the Queen bitter, bitterness had made her selfish, and selfishness had made her suspicious. --The Changeling"