Brisbane Quotes

I must have appeared like a real bad boy in Christy's eyes. Well, at least a bad boy by home and away standards. ~ S.A. Tawks

One thousand ways to say good-bye
One thousands ways to cry
One thousand ways to hang your hat before you go outside
I say good-bye good-bye good-bye
I shout it out so loud
Cause the next time that I find my voice I might not remember how. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor. ~ Deanna Raybourn

What's yer name?" he demanded.
The girl searched for a name. "Stella," she said at last, because she had the stars at her fingertips and she had been studying maps of the sky and she was someone else now, not the girl she had been in Ballarat where her grandfather had pointed out the planets and named them, and not the girl she had been in Melbourne, and she certainly didn't want to be the girl she was at her Brisbane school. She was reinventing herself.
"No it's not," the boy said. "You're new. Where're ya from?"
"I'm Stella," she said stubbornly. "I'm from the moon. You wanna look? ~ Janette Turner Hospital

It's called the kindness of a fellow human being. You should try it sometime, ya fuck. ~ S.A. Tawks

Someone who lives vicariously will never be truly happy because they're not happy with themselves. ~ S.A. Tawks

They have different accents in America " Brisbane smiled. "Just as we do here." I waved a hand. "They all sound alike to me. ~ Deanna Raybourn

Now comes the hard part. Peyton, Peyton, Peyton. Just say Peyton. ~ S.A. Tawks

Time is the one thing we possess. Our success depends upon the use of our time, and its by-product, the odd moment. ~ Arthur Brisbane

I saw my first gig here actually (Festival Hall in Brisbane) Duran Duran. ~ Bernard Fanning

I found it hard to get motivated because I found it hard to care. ~ S.A. Tawks

Maybe I should have given more thought to her thoughts. ~ S.A. Tawks

Opportunity comes like a snail, and once it has passed you it changes into a fleet rabbit and is gone. ~ Arthur Brisbane

I didn't let what I wanted to do become a made up memory that I looked back on years down the road and wished it was real. ~ S.A. Tawks

Brisbane continued. "I have led a selfish life, and I have enjoyed it. I cannot imagine a life without my work, and I cannot imagine a life without you, and yet I cannot reconcile the two." My heart, which had given a joyous leap in the middle of his speech, faltered now as I realised what he was trying to say. "I never thought to ask you to give up your work," I began. "But how can I ask you to sit idly by and wait for me to return when every time I kiss you goodbye might be the last?" "Oh, don't!" I told him, fully enraged. "How dare you blame your cowardice upon me?" His lips went white, as did the tiny crescent moon scar high upon his cheekbone. "I beg your pardon?" "Cowardice," I said distinctly. "You hide behind this pretence of fine feeling because you will not declare yourself directly and this gives you a perfect excuse, does it not? Spare poor Julia the horror of being widowed a second time. Put her up on the shelf and keep her out of harm's way whilst you amuse yourself with your dashing adventures." He opened his mouth to speak, but I stepped forward, tipping my head up to rail at him. "I am quite disappointed that you have revealed yourself to be so thoroughly conventional in your philosophy. Have I not proven myself a capable partner?" I demanded. "Have I not stood, side by side, with you, facing peril with equal courage? If you thought for a moment that I would be the meek, quiet, obedient sort of woman who would sit quietly at home mending your socks while you ~ Deanna Raybourn

He'd only been gone two seconds, but the room got brighter when they were together, as if they were two elements that became brilliant in proximity. At Sam's clumsy efforts to carry the vacuum, Grace smiled a new smile that I thought only he ever got, and he shot her a withering look full of the sort of subtext you could only get from a lot of conversations whispered after dark.
It made me think of Isabel, back at her house. We didn't have what Sam and Grace had. We weren't even close to having it. I didn't think what we had could get to this, even if you gave it a thousand years. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

The situation was saved; Brisbane was going to tell a story. ~ Francis Marion Crawford

Too much negativity can make the strongest structures dilapidate. ~ S.A. Tawks

I think the last thing you should do to someone willing to put your penis in their mouth is give them criticism. ~ S.A. Tawks

I wasn't pissed off; I was just robbed of most of the cocky confidence my cunningness had created. ~ S.A. Tawks

What do you mean? Grace Brisbane, you do not mean that you're not going back home again. Tell me that this was just because you were momentarily angry at them for grounding you. Or even tell me it's because you could not live without The Boy's stunning Boyfruits for another night. But don't tell me you think it's forever! ~ Maggie Stiefvater

A good friend can tell you what is the matter with you in a minute. He may not seem such a good friend after telling. ~ Arthur Brisbane

Doesn't she understand that a key factor to learning is the want to learn? ~ S.A. Tawks

It was my duty as a mother to invade your privacy and search your room. I'm just glad you weren't hiding an illegal drug. ~ S.A. Tawks

People give up. People settle. People persevere. And you can do all three if you're smart enough. ~ S.A. Tawks

There Rhoda sits staring at the blackboard,' said Louis, 'in the
schoolroom, while we ramble off, picking here a bit of thyme,
pinching here a leaf of southernwood while Bernard tells a story.
Her shoulder-blades meet across her back like the wings of a small
butterfly. And as she stares at the chalk figures, her mind lodges
in those white circles, it steps through those white loops into
emptiness, alone. They have no meaning for her. She has no answer
for them. She has no body as the others have. And I, who speak
with an Australian accent, whose father is a banker in Brisbane, do
not fear her as I fear the others. ~ Virginia Woolf

To Grace, these were the things that mattered: my hands on her cheeks, my lips on her mouth. The fleeting touches that meant I loved her. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

Among the aimless, unsuccessful or worthless, you often hear talk about 'killing time.' The man who is always killing time is really killing his own chances in life. While the man who is destined to success is the man who makes time live by making it useful. ~ Arthur Brisbane

It was as if I was automatically one of them because I smoked. ~ S.A. Tawks

The acceptance of just one person is enough to silence the rejection of thousands. ~ S.A. Tawks

Counter Girl (in candy shop): You two are cute. Seriously. How long have you been going out?
Sam: Six years. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

We fiction writers have to preserve the right to wear many hats – including sombreros. ~ Lionel Shriver

If they don't board and live by themselves, even in their second year they've got no lounge or kitchen table and it's a pretty lonely existence when you get home to an empty house. Homesickness is a key issue for kids who are drafted interstate, whether they are going to Melbourne or coming to Perth or going to Brisbane. All the kids we've drafted this year will all go through periods of homesickness, which can lead to worse things. ~ Trevor Nisbett

My newfound motivation had me feeling confident in my ability and I headed to Mackay with a plan. ~ S.A. Tawks

The false hope I filled myself with is fleeing and I'm beginning to feel scared again. ~ S.A. Tawks

But this month is all about CITY OF JASMINE which I hope you already have in your hot little hands. My favorite review snippet? KIRKUS REVIEWS said it's "part screwball comedy".
I can't tell you how much time I spent with Carole Lombard and William Powell and Irene Dunne when I was writing it. I adore the 30s comedies for their light-hearted take on relationships and adventure - and the glamorous settings and occasional dash of intrigue only heighten the magic. (Did you know that Nicholas Brisbane from my Lady Julia series was named for THE THIN MAN's Nick Charles? And apologies to Dashiell Hammett, but I fell in love with the film long before I read the book and appreciated how much it had been lightened in the adaptation!) So when you're reading CITY OF JASMINE, give some thought to who you'd like to see playing Evie and Gabriel - I'd love to hear who you'd cast in your own production. ~ Deanna Raybourn

She loved all the wolves behind her house, but she loved one of them most of all.
And this one loved her back. He loved her back so hard that even the things that weren't special about her became special: the way she tapped her pencil on her teeth, the off-key songs she sang in the shower, how when she kissed him he knew it meant for ever.
Hers was a memory made up of snapshots: being dragged through the snow by a pack of wolves, first kiss tasting of oranges, saying goodbye behind a cracked windshield.
A life made up of promises of what could be: the possibilities contained in a stack of college applications, the thrill of sleeping under a strange roof, the future that lay in Sam's smile.
It was a life I didn't want to leave behind.
It was a life I didn't want to forget.
I wasn't done with it yet. There was so much more to say. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

I broke in swiftly. "How kind of you to renew your offer, your Grace. But I am afraid I must decline. Brisbane is the man for me. ~ Deanna Raybourn

Sam reached his hand toward mine and I automatically put my fingers in his. With a guilty little smile he pulled my hand toward his nose and took a sniff and then another one. His smile widened though it was still shy. It was absolutely adorable and my breath got caught somewhere in my throat. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

Regret for time wasted can become a power for good in the time that remains, if we will only stop the waste and the idle, useless regretting. ~ Arthur Brisbane

At the age of 25, I gave up my study of Japanese language and culture at university in Brisbane and moved to the town of Alice Springs. ~ Robyn Davidson

If you're not happy with yourself, how can you even begin to figure out if another person makes you happy, annoyed, angry, sad and so on. ~ S.A. Tawks

It is possible to be in love with you just because of who you are. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

I wasn't sure if I was charmed by his reluctance to share a bed with a girl or insulted that, apparently, I wasn't hot enough for him to charge the mattress like a bull. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

She'd been fed anti-consumerist bullshit by her parents but didn't understand simple economics. ~ S.A. Tawks

Even freedom needs some rules to keep it from being complete chaos. ~ S.A. Tawks

I liked learning but the challenge was that my mother's need to turn education into a competition was ruining the experience for me. ~ S.A. Tawks

I found that disturbing the night's calm ambience was almost as gratifying as the ambience itself. ~ S.A. Tawks

A newspaper is a mirror reflecting the public, a mirror more or less defective, but still a mirror. ~ Arthur Brisbane

Brisbane and I passed a thoroughly satisfactory and entirely private evening in the solitude of our room. "Thank God for stout stone walls," he said at one point, and I heartily agreed. ~ Deanna Raybourn

They were queen bitches and it seemed everyone and everything they knew and everyone and everything they didn't know deserved some kind of criticism. ~ S.A. Tawks

If you don't hit a newspaper reader between the eyes with your first sentence, there is no need of writing a second one. ~ Arthur Brisbane

He poured out the wine and took a deep draught of it, then loosened his neckcloth, an act of dinner table impropriety that would have affronted most other wives, but which I strongly encouraged. Brisbane had a very handsome throat. ~ Deanna Raybourn

Writing good editorials is chiefly telling the people what they think, not what you think. ~ Arthur Brisbane

Brisbane put one in mind of wolves and lithe jungle cats, while Edward conjured images of seraphim and slim young saints. It required an entirely different aesthetic altogether to appreciate Brisbane, one that I lacked. Entirely. ~ Deanna Raybourn

I started down but Sam caught my arm and knelt down himself to look.
"For crying out loud," he said. "It's a racoon."
"Poor thing," I said.
"It could be a rabid baby-killer," Cole told me primly.
"Shut up," Sam said pleasantly. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

The stretch of Bruce Highway between Gin Gin and Miriam Vale was long and lonesome. ~ S.A. Tawks

Maybe if you allowed me to blow off some steam, I wouldn't have been so frustrated when I had to find higher order fucking derivatives. ~ S.A. Tawks

Acting with confidence, but inside lacking certainty, I'd told her I could. ~ S.A. Tawks

My non American viewers. Who understand that the world does not consist solely of a single nation sailing across an infinite sea of migrant workers. Will no doubt have heard that the waters surrounding Brisbane got tired of waiting for people to hit the beach and decided to bring the party to us. ~ Yahtzee Croshaw

Jane, who is much better at reading guide books than I am (I always read them on the way back to see what I missed, it's often quite a shock), discovered something wonderful in the book she was reading. Did I know, she asked, that Brisbane was originally founded as a penal colony for convicts who committed new offences after they had arrived in Australia ? I spent a good half hour enjoying this single piece of information. It was wonderful. There we British sat, poor grey sodden creatures, huddling under our grey northern sky that seeped like a rancid dish cloth, busy sending those we wished to punish most severely to sit in bright sunlight on the coast of the Tasman Sea at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef and maybe do some surfing too. No wonder the Australians have a particular kind of smile that they reserve exclusively for use on the British. ~ Douglas Adams

Would I come off as a creepy-stalker-kind-of-guy or would it demonstrate that I cared? ~ S.A. Tawks

What does that quote mean to you? Can you explain the concept behind it and not just repeat the pretty phrase to me? ~ S.A. Tawks

Sam: "You - you greatly overestimate my self-control."
Grace: "I'm not looking for self-control. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

My sense of misadventure took over and I began looking at my problems as challenges. ~ S.A. Tawks

By the time I had gathered my wits sufficiently to press the point the lamps had guttered out and Brisbane was sleeping heavily fatigued by his effortshighly successful efforts I must confessto divert me from the investigation. I lay awake physically satisfied but deeply annoyed. Even after nine months of marriage I was still not entirely comfortable with my responses to his physical overtures. The merest touch from him and all reasonable though seemed to fly out of my head. It was most disconcerting and more so because he apparently knew it I thought irritable. ~ Deanna Raybourn

But now I think he was trying to teach me to never feel entitled because life can be a cruel bitch at times. ~ S.A. Tawks

Five minutes later and the three of us are pushing through the heavy, swinging doors of the Brisbane Watchhouse. A place that at six on a Tuesday evening looks like Little Nimbin - we're the only ones wearing shoes. 'Remind me what we're here to get - you know, apart from head lice and maybe tinea?' I say to no one in particular.

- Cat ~ Rebecca Sparrow

This is your chance. Are you going to cower and make excuses or are you going to do what you really want to do? ~ S.A. Tawks

Other times, when existential crisis mode kicked in, I flirted with the idea of giving up and drifting whichever way gravity and wind moved me. ~ S.A. Tawks

While the fool is enjoying the little he has, I will hunt for more. The way to hunt for more is to utilize your odd moments ... the man who is always killing time is really killing his own chances in life. ~ Arthur Brisbane

You live by whatever rules you need to govern your life the best you think. Let's just try not to encroach. ~ S.A. Tawks

A fight needs at least two fighters. Sometimes you can win straight away by not fighting. ~ S.A. Tawks

Are you going to say anything?"
Brisbane crossed one leg lazily over the other flicking an imaginary piece of lint from his trousers. "I think he is doing quite well without me."
"I did not mean for you to help him I meant for you to defend me," I said huffing slightly in my indignation. ~ Deanna Raybourn

Or even tell me it's because you could not live without The Boy's stunning Boyfruits for another night ...
Sam's face was twisted into a weird shape at the mention of his Boyfruits. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

They had to be untrustworthy enough to buy a minor alcohol but trustworthy enough to not walk away with my money. ~ S.A. Tawks

Your days are only important if you decide to make them important. ~ S.A. Tawks

Come on," Cole said. He looked back over his shoulder at Mr. Brisbane, who was looking at me with a complicated expression as I left. Cole pointed at him and said, "You're a son of a bitch. He belongs here more than you do. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

My anger tempted the act of delinquency and it felt good to dabble. ~ S.A. Tawks

For the first time in ten years, the March family gathered to perform the Twelfth Night Revels for the village of Blessingstoke, just as they had done in Master Shakespeare's day. The dragon breathed fire while the Turkish Knight brandished his sword at St. George, and when it was finished, the resurrected saint and his sad dragon stood in tableau while the white-robed chorus, of which Portia and I made two, sang of the blood-berried holly and the sweetly clinging ivy. Rather like Brisbane and myself, I thought fancifully. Both evergreen and hardy, one sturdy, one tenacious, and forever undivided. But now there was a new little branch grafted to our union. ~ Deanna Raybourn

I let my initial stance on her prettiness stand and didn't let any superficial thoughts hobble it. ~ S.A. Tawks

You look like a puppy. Like I'm jingling my keys and you're jumping by the door waiting for your walk"
"Woof. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

Afterward, Isabel drove me home and I shut myself in the study with Rilke, and I read and I wanted.
And leaving you (there arent words to untangle it)
Your life, fearful and immense and blossoming,
So that, sometimes frustrated, and sometimes
understanding
Your life is sometimes a stone in you, and then, a star
I was beginning to undertand poetry. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

I fell for her in summer, my lovely summer girl,
From summer she is made, my lovely summer girl,
I'd love to spend a winter with my lovely summer girl,
But I'm never warm enough for my lovely summer girl,
It's summer when she smiles, I'm laughing like a child,
It's the summer of our lives; we'll contain it for a while
She holds the heat, the breeze of summer in the circle of her hand
I'd be happy with this summer if it's all we ever had. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

In a world of differing opinions, mentally unstable people and complete psychopaths, it was the type of simplistic notion that some people wouldn't want to follow or ignorance would just simply not allow them to understand. ~ S.A. Tawks

The best experiences can't be forced and they come when you least expect it. You don't find misadventure, it finds you. ~ S.A. Tawks

I grew up in suburban Brisbane, so to say you wanted to be an actor was a ridiculous concept. ~ Matt Passmore

Most would probably call it a dumb idea, but considering my wants it was a good idea. ~ S.A. Tawks

I'd developed an apology-is-much-better-than-asking-for-permission mentality. ~ S.A. Tawks

It was not mine to tell. He asked for my word I would keep silent."

"I think you might have broken it upon this occasion," Plum returned hotly.

"Then I think you know me not at all," Brisbane countered, his tone deceptively bland. He would put up with Plum's barbs only so long before he took the quarrel further, and that was not an eventuality I cared to see. "Calm yourself, Plum. If I am not upset, you have no call to be." I turned to Brisbane. "I understand why you did not tell me. You are a man of your word. And you know precisely when it is necessary to break it. This was not that time." The look he gave me was mingled gratitude and promise of a significant dose of his attentions later. I shivered a little as Portia entered. ~ Deanna Raybourn

It was odd but I couldn't jump the chasm of missing evidence to the conclusion Todd was making. ~ S.A. Tawks

Holding tight, denying the fact that eventually we all had to let go. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

The commonest form, one of the most often neglected, and the safest opportunity for the average man to seize, is hard work. ~ Arthur Brisbane

Nyree taught me not to trust anyone but Steve quickly corrected that lesson and taught me not to trust everyone. ~ S.A. Tawks

Where's your sense of misadventure? ~ S.A. Tawks

I sat down and put my fingertips to my temples, rubbing hard. "We have one fallen tree, one destroyed Rookery, one delusional butler and no good brandy. Is that what you are telling me?"
"And the cook's down with piles and more than half the staff are suffering from catarrh," she added maliciously.
I looked to Brisbane, who was smiling broadly. "God bless us, everyone," he said, spreading his arms wide. ~ Deanna Raybourn

Everyday something unexpected happened. Everyday was exciting. Everyday was a misadventure. ~ S.A. Tawks

Use a picture. It's worth a thousand words. ~ Arthur Brisbane

Grace," I said, very softly. "Say something."
Sam," she said, and I crushed her to me. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

It seemed, at that point, my greed and cunningness were being rewarded. ~ S.A. Tawks