Gina Marinello-Sweeney Quotes

The Eternal Smiler strode forth, handing her one, as well. I considered the psychology behind her smile and formed the conclusion that, despite its obvious coating of pleasantry, it was an understandable psychological decision.

They are each a maze," he said thoughtfully. "Each of them - both the rose and the shell - go around and around in their own way, yet each of them has - "

"A center," the old sea captain finished, watching Antonio.

The only way that your work will truly find an audience is if it is genuine.

Let the violin become a fiddle, boy.

For a moment, perhaps an hour, they would wait, wait for something, and when that waiting was over, it was simply dismissed, goodbyes stated, reading materials closed, a momentary pause in the day that did not hold up to whatever came next.
Waiting was often a resented gift, imparted to those who accepted it grudgingly in the hopes that something better would come along when the gift was tossed aside, boxed away for the next recipient.

And, as I had gazed at my surroundings, at the muted, yet triumphant, colors splashed in joyful serenity over the immaculate stone floor, at the profiles of my fellow parishioners bent in prayer, and finally, up above, at the flickering lights held in a soft gray ceiling like chandeliers in an ancient palace, I realized that my thoughts had been transferred to Someone Else.

Like dandelions they flew across the expanse
Of desert calm without advance
They filtered through the stilled "become"
Returning to the land they knew.
They knew no more than where they flew.
And so they gathered, one and all,
And scattered it throughout their path.
Only golden-shafted majesty could still their might.
And so they flew onward, without a path.

It mingles in seas of carousels
It becomes the past and knows it not.

Those who find something in I Thirst, who can relate to a project so close to my heart, instantly become a sort of "friend." Whenever people come to me and tell me that they appreciated I Thirst or thank me for writing it, I feel that I have done something right
not because I am one of the greats, but because the story spoke to them in some way, in a way that perhaps was universal but uniquely their own all the same. I put out my story, but the readers made it their own.

On the contrary," he said softly, "everyone is here.

A coldness, nearly tangible due to its extreme weight, was perceptible the instant I entered the room.

You were...are...what I heard. Every note.

Scattered pebbles reached toward
the waters like a cocoon transformed to liquid
sapphires, and a forest of trees and bramble framed
each curve, mountains rising in the distance.

The adventurer became the storyteller ... and then the Sentinel of the Sea.

Delicate footprints circled around and around in a softly traced maze. I breathed in the scent of the deep crimson rose petals before me, and a glimpse of a thought suddenly surrounded them.

In airy breaths I fly anew
Uncontained by earth or mortal coil
I remain free, as if in distant land
Circling on and on without false step
Breathless, I glide, a maiden swept
In the wonder of ice-capsuled chandeliers
Laughing without reserve or fear
Touched by the vibrant glow
Of a treasure chest
Sought and found.

And yet the great blue sky was above me and my eyes thirsted for its words.

Peter kept the same pace that I did, even though I knew that I helplessly dragged my feet. The image of a doctor guiding an invalid grudgingly entered my mind. Yet there was a companionable silence as we trudged onward. My mind was still half vacant, but I felt safe. And, although our hands did not touch, I felt as if they did.

Even the sublime portal, half of a circlet the color of the first snow, knew their names.

I stared back at her, my eyes leveled with hers in inscrutable certainty. For a moment, our eyes remained engaged, unflinching and impenetrable, as the shrill, steady call of a siren ran across the street outside, mixing with the effervescent glow of traffic lights and a steady pitter-patter of pedestrian feet sauntering across the street in wakeful gait.

At the intermission," I whispered, "we must leave.

Once again, she speaks in another language when things get awkward.

My Dear Lord, please help me. Place me in the Center of Your Perfect Will.
Adoro te devote, latens Deitas.
Bread of Life by bread concealed, speaking heart to heart.
Tibi se cor meum totum subjicit.
Let Your presence draw me in here my senses fail.
Visus cactus, gustus in te falliti.
This is truth enough for me.
Peto quod petivit latro paenitens.
Seeing You upon the Cross, flesh and blood, I find.
Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor.
I see not but name You still God and Prince of Life.
O memoriale mortis Domini.
How I thirst to meet Your gaze gloriously revealed. After life's obscurity, let me wake to see. Beauty shining from Your Face for eternity.
Amen.

The college bookstore was a splash of life, culture, and society. As a psychology student, I often found myself intrigued by the behavior, ways of thinking and feeling, and general schemata of others, and this was the perfect spot to engage my senses.
Other times, I was just annoyed.

They own a shop of exotic jam.

Have you ever felt like you were caught in a maze in which nothing made sense? In which you saw Superman and the Green Goblin in the same comic strip when they really belonged in two different stories?

She nodded, golden curls beaming in their flight, as she continued her drawing, absolutely absorbed.

Sunken yellow lurched in a mindfield of black
twisted cylinders, falling like poisoned honey across
my vision. It cleared, and became a series of flashing
images, jagged edges of memories, each more
beautiful and terrible than the last, playing across
the screen of blackened cement.

Can a rose survive in winter?

Yes, it is," I whispered, "and one day the spell will not cause you to forget it.

It is the littlest of flowers that fly the farthest ... That have the courage to fly the farthest.

Then I guess," she said, "you like to be vexed.

Many a year I told her tales. And then the time came for me to watch. And watch I have.

But I was caught in an hourglass of colliding dreams.

Rebecca, we live in a world where darkness seems, in the minds of many, something banished to the world of fairy tales and superhero movies. How surprising it then becomes - even for those of us who believe otherwise - that it may appear in our own lives, in our own battles. To face an opponent that is more than the average 'jerk,' who has made a deadly choice, is, let us admit it, nothing that we expect to experience.

He wished to be more like the sea. He wished to know its wisdom, its peace. He wished to know the legend that it spoke. The legend that soared far beyond legends. The Legend that spoke Truth.

Odd is a compliment," he continued, his eyes twinkling, "whereas weird is an insult.

They whirled around in the light dance of a duchess entering a ball - majestic yet understated - a spiraling splash of purity of color that took shape under nature's watch. A newly-sculpted garden burst forth, glistening in an afternoon sun. It welcomed the dusty pink rose, who stood beside its fellows, basked themselves in their own serenity of white, triumphant red, or cheery yellow. It swayed in the breath of a wind, caressing each and becoming more. It was a mixture of quiet and thunderous, light and dark, shyness and boldness. It was a mixture of the quiet strength and overwhelming courage that the human soul might wish to one day possess.

Battle scars were not a commodity that I was accustomed to selling, least of all to myself.

He's convinced that you're a psycho," I explained, as I reached the bench. "He has the list narrowed down to either a double agent or a serial killer.

I held onto it as the world tilted upside down in
a dizzying vortex of lost dreams.

A fleeting moment of bliss filling your existence with ecstasy, only to fade with the dimming light.
No, I could not believe that.

St. Catherine of Siena once said, 'If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze.' But," I turned to him urgently, "how can I even light a single candle if someone blocks off the first step?

There is a host of angels surrounding you, Rebecca. Not figuratively. Literally. With wings spread far to encompass you, protect you with their Light. Remember that they are with you - see them with your heart and soul - whenever you are forced to engage in battle with forces that seek and have become, through their own will, evil.

I sat down, turning the pages of my notebook in search of a blank page, in the dim light of my room. The arrival of nightfall had invited leafy shadows to play hide and seek in the glass reflection of the window. I smiled as one of these mischievous shadows crept across the page in a midnight dance.

A few days earlier, Adriana and I had been browsing books at the local library. I happened to turn around and look at her ... and that was it. The man who "loved to laugh" in Mary Poppins had nothing on us.

There is nothing more nerve-racking than waiting as someone reads your writing. The reader becomes the videographer, zooming far, far into your heart and soul, unveiling every inch and corner. The writer remains a wary observer at the mercy of the reader, clueless as to how he might react. The writer is exposed, laid bare; her innermost thoughts and feelings are revealed in a potentially scathing moment of vulnerability. I trusted Peter so fully ... in a way that I could not explain. For that very reason, it mattered so immensely. To actually tell him what I knew he had already often seen in my eyes was to allow him to enter a new dimension in that world. And it mattered. It really, truly mattered.

Oh, I suppose we are all a bit crazier as kids. But I hope you never lose your sense of randomness. I hope you never lose the way you dance in the moonlight, your eyes filled with wonder. I hope you always care as much as you do today. 'Blasé' never looked good on anyone. And, if the world decides to be one big snob, ignore it.

That," Adriana said, "is a puzzling mystery that must be solved.

No magnetic wombats, no flying hyenas, no catfish masquerading as samurai, and, MOST CERTAINLY, no Duku jam!

Knowledge can be powerful. But it can only be beautiful if there is more to it. If it is guided by something greater than the simple desire to enhance the potency of the mind.

All those who are in love may appear to be quite silly.

There is an unspoken pact between best friends that stipulates the following:
To induce laughter, all you have to do is look at your partner-in-crime - even in the absence of said crime.

The fleeting moment became Whole.

Just another attempt by Rebecca to connect an everyday occurrence to the literary world."
- Adriana

And the shower of roses spun around me, inviting me to take part in their ever-present waltz.

Caution: Danger ahead. Do not refer to Adriana as little in regards to either her age or stature. If you happen to disregard this most basic of laws, approach with caution. Much, much caution.