Diana Gabaldon Quotes

And below, the notebook filled with fine cursive script, laying out in strict order conclusion and delusion, mingling myth and science, drawing from learned men and legends, all of it based on the power of dreams. To any casual observer, it could be either a muddle of half-thought-out nonsense or, at best, the outline for a clever-silly novel. Only to me did it have the look of a careful, deliberate plan. In ~ Diana Gabaldon

You forget the life you had before, after awhile. Things you cherish and hold dear are like pearls on a string. Cut the knot and they scatter across the floor, rolling into dark corners never to be found again. So you move on, and eventually you forget what the pearls even looked like. At least, you try. ~ Diana Gabaldon

The moon was beginning to rise when they set out, and a good thing, too, Brianna thought. Even with the big, lopsided gold orb sailing up out of a cradle of stars and shedding its borrowed radiance over the sky, the trail beneath their feet was invisible. So were their feet, drowned in the absolute black of the forest at night. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Tent for a day and a night. The tent shook and heaved, and voices ~ Diana Gabaldon

I marched into the shop and bought the vases. ~ Diana Gabaldon

It's a bit undignified to get into, but it's verra easy to take off"
"How do you get into it?" I asked curiously.
"Well, ye lay it out on the ground, like this" -he knelt, spreading the cloth so that it lined the leaf-strewn hollow- "and then ye pleat it every few inches, lie down on it, and row."
I burst out laughing, and sank to my knees, helping to smooth the thick tartan wool. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Her maternal feelings were unlikely to be assuaged by hearing that the marriage had been performed in the middle of the night on a West Indian beach by a disgraced - if not actually defrocked - priest, witnessed by twenty-five seamen, ten French horses, a small flock of sheep - all gaily beribboned in honor of the occasion - and a King Charles spaniel, who added to the generally festive feeling by attempting to copulate with Murphy's wooden leg at every opportunity. The only thing that could make things worse, in Laoghaire's view, would be to hear that I had participated in the ceremony. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Mmphm," he said. "Hell of a choice, there. A stick up the cock, or a finger up the backside, eh? ~ Diana Gabaldon

Yes. It doesn't matter what happens; no matter where a child goes - how far or how long. Even if it's forever. You never lose them. You can't. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Nothing is lost, Sassenach; only changed." "That's the first law of thermodynamics," I said, wiping my nose. "No," he said. "That's faith. ~ Diana Gabaldon

I didna say I wanted an apology, did I? If I recall aright, what I said was 'Bite me again. ~ Diana Gabaldon

What underlies great science is what underlies great art, whether it is visual or written, and that is the ability to distinguish patterns out of chaos. ~ Diana Gabaldon

I was having trouble with the scale of things. A man killed with a musket was just as dead as one killed with a mortar. It was just that the mortar killed impersonally, destroying dozens of men, while the musket was fired by one man who could see the eyes of the one he killed. That made it murder, it seemed to me, not war. How many men to make a war? Enough, perhaps, so they didn't really have to see each other? ~ Diana Gabaldon

Because I wanted you." He turned from the window to face me. "More than I ever wanted anything in my life," he added softly.

I continued staring at him, dumbstruck. Whatever I had been expecting, it wasn't this. Seeing my openmouthed expression, he continued lightly. "When I asked my da how ye knew which was the right woman, he told me when the time came, I'd have no doubt. And I didn't. When I woke in the dark under that tree on the road to Leoch, with you sitting on my chest, cursing me for bleeding to death, I said to myself, 'Jamie Fraser, for all ye canna see what she looks like, and for all she weighs as much as a good draft horse, this is the woman'"

I started toward him, and he backed away, talking rapidly. "I said to myself, 'She's mended ye twice in as many hours, me lad; life amongst the MacKenzies being what it is, it might be as well to wed a woman as can stanch a wound and set broken bones.' And I said to myself, 'Jamie, lad, if her touch feels so bonny on your collarbone, imagine what it might feel like lower down...'"

He dodged around a chair. "Of course, I thought it might ha' just been the effects of spending four months in a monastery, without benefit of female companionship, but then that ride through the dark together"--he paused to sigh theatrically, neatly evading my grab at his sleeve--"with that lovely broad arse wedged between my thighs"--he ducked a blow aimed at his left ear and sidestepped, getting a low table betw ~ Diana Gabaldon

It was Jamie's fear that he would lose her - that she would go, swing out into a dark and solitary space without him, unless he could somehow bind her to him, keep her with him. But, Christ, what a risk to take - with a woman so shocked and brutalized, how could he risk it? ~ Diana Gabaldon

He leaned close, rubbing his bearded cheek against my ear. 'And how about a sweet kiss, now, for the brave lads of the clan MacKenzie? Tulach Ard!'
Erin go bragh,' I said rudely, and pushed with all my strength. ~ Diana Gabaldon

For I had come back, and I dreamed once more in the cool air of the Highlands. And the voice of my dream still echoed through ears and heart, repeated with the sound of Brianna's sleeping breath. "You are mine," it had said. "Mine. And I will not let you go. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Good sex scene is about the exchange of emotions, not bodily fluids ~ Diana Gabaldon

It wasn't the risk," I said, flicking my toes at a big black-and-white splotched carp. "Or not entirely. It was - well, it was partly fear, but mostly it was that I - I couldn't leave Jamie." I shrugged helplessly. "I - simply couldn't. ~ Diana Gabaldon

He went on loving her," she whispered, as much to herself as to anyone else. "He didn't forget her." "Of course he didna forget her." She opened her eyes to see Ian's long face and kind brown eyes six inches away. A broad work-worn hand rested on hers, warm and hard, a hand even larger than her own. "Neither did we," he said. ~ Diana Gabaldon

We didn't speak anymore, then, as the melting boundaries of our bodies disappeared. It was slow, dreamy and peaceful, his body and mine as much as mine was his, so that I curled my foot round his leg and felt both smooth sole and hairy shin, felt callused palm and tender flesh, was knife and sheath together, the rhythm of our movement that of one heart beating. The ~ Diana Gabaldon

Gentle he would be, denied he would not. ~ Diana Gabaldon

A hedgehog? And just how does a hedgehog make love?" he demanded.
No, I thought. I won't. I will not. But I did. "Very carefully," I replied, giggling helplessly. So now we know just how old that one is, I thought. ~ Diana Gabaldon

There is nothing more delightful in life than a feather bed and an open fire - except a feather bed with a warm and tender lover in it. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Exposure to a two-year-old boy was probably the best possible object lesson in the dangers of motherhood, ~ Diana Gabaldon

As though frustrated by so much rustic simplicity, though, one of the chefs had provided a charming hors d'oeuvre - a nest, cunningly built from strips of pastry, ornamented with real sprigs of flowering apple, on the edge of which perched two nightingales, skinned and roasted, stuffed with apple and cinnamon, then redressed in their feathers. And in the nest was the entire family of baby birds, tiny stubs of outstretched wings brown and crispy, tender bare skins glazed with honey, blackened mouths agape to show the merest hint of the almond-paste stuffing within. ~ Diana Gabaldon

are like sherry in crystal, and ~ Diana Gabaldon

I baptize thee, Germain Alexander Claudel MacKenzie Fraser, in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Is that you, Geordie?" he asked, not turning around. He was dressed in shirt and breeches, and had a small tool of some kind in his hand, with which he was doing something to the innards of the press. "Took ye long enough. Did ye get the - " "It isn't Geordie," I said. My voice was higher than usual. "It's me," I said. ~ Diana Gabaldon

I had one last try.
"Does it bother you that I'm not a virgin?" He hesitated a moment before answering.
"Well, no," he said slowly, "so long as it doesna bother you that I am." He grinned at my drop-jawed expression, and backed toward the door.
"Reckon one of us should know what they're doing," he said. The door closed softly behind him; clearly the courtship was over. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Torn between the impulse to stroke his head, and the urge to cave it in with a rock, I did neither. ~ Diana Gabaldon

He was generally aware that he had been blessed in her beauty; even in her usual homespun, knee-deep in mud from her garden, or stained and fierce with the blood of her calling, the curve of her bones spoke to his own marrow, and those whisky eyes could make him drunk with a glance. Besides, the mad collieshangie of her hair made him laugh. ~ Diana Gabaldon

You first."
"No, you."
"Why?"
"I'm afraid."
"Of what, my Sassenach?" The darkness was rolling in over the fields, filling the land and rising up to meet the night. The light of the new crescent moon marked the ridges of brow and nose, crossing his face with light.
"I'm afraid if I start I shall never stop."
He cast a glance at the horizon, where the sickle moon hung low and rising. "It's nearly winter, and the nights are long, mo duinne." He leaned across the fence, reaching, and I stepped into his arms, feeling the heat of his body and the beat of his heart.
"I love you. ~ Diana Gabaldon

He splayed a hand out over the photographs, trembling fingers not quite touching the shiny surface, and then he turned and leaned toward me, slowly, with the improbable grace of a tall tree falling. He buried his face in my shoulder and went very quietly and thoroughly to pieces. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Why d'ye talk to yourself?" "It assures me of a good listener, ~ Diana Gabaldon

The vivid memory of the woods had blossomed into a visceral longing for the Ridge, so immediate that I felt the ghost of my vanished house rise around me, a cold mountain wind thrumming past its walls, and thought that, if I reached down, I could feel Adso's soft gray fur under my fingers. I swallowed, hard. ~ Diana Gabaldon

I wish you the best of luck," Grey said politely. "And I do hope that the gentleman Tom saw in the custody of the press gang was Mr. Gormley. However - if he was, does this not rather obviate your conclusion that he was in possession of incriminating information regarding the perpetrator?"

Jones gave him a glassy look, and Tom Byrd looked reproving.

"Now, me lord, you know you oughtn't talk like that at this hour of the morning. You got to pardon his lordship, sir," he said apologetically to Jones. "His father - the duke, you know - had him schooled in logic. He can't really help it, like."

(Haunted Soldier) ~ Diana Gabaldon

For a moment, I lived in the center of the sun, warmed and cleansed, and the smell and sight of sickness fell away; the bitterness lifted from my heart. I ~ Diana Gabaldon

I've spent more than twenty years looking for answers, Roger, and I can tell you only one thing: There aren't any answers, only choices. I've made a number of them myself, and no one can tell me whether they were right or wrong. ~ Diana Gabaldon

(…) "To the last drop of my blood, mo duinne." "Mo duinne" I asked, a little disturbed by the intensity of this speech. (…) "It means 'my brown one.' " He raised a lock of hair to his lips and smiled, with a look in his eyes that started all the drops of my own blood chasing each other through my veins. "Mo duinne," he repeated, softly. "I have been longing to say that to you. ~ Diana Gabaldon

When you hold a child to your breast to nurse, the curve of the little head echoes exactly the curve of the breast it suckles, as though this new person truly mirrors the flesh from which it sprang. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Still I dinna expect anything to happen to me. But if it should ... If it does, then I want there to be a place for you; I want someone for you to go to if I am ... not there to care for you. If it canna be me, then I would have it be a man who loves you. ~ Diana Gabaldon

She came naked behind him as the soft melancholy yearning of the song filled the dark. Her hand stroked his hair, gathered it tight at the nape of his neck. She swayed, and he felt her press against his back, her breasts soft now, yielding and warm through his shirt, her breath tickling his ear. Her hand rested on his shoulder briefly, then slid down inside his shirt, fingers cool on his chest. He could feel the warm hard metal of her ring on his skin, and felt a surge of possession that pulsed through him like a gulp of whisky, a heat suffusing his flesh. He ached to turn and take hold of her, but pushed the urge down, heightening anticipation. He bent his head closer to the strings, and sang until all thought left him and there was nothing left but his body and hers. He could not have said when her hand closed over his on the frets, and he rose and turned to her, still filled with the music and his love, soft and strong and pure in the dark. ~ Diana Gabaldon

said. "And how is Oggy today? ~ Diana Gabaldon

Date of our first anniversary, Jamie had been in the Bastille, and I ... I had been in ~ Diana Gabaldon

Sassenach I might be to him, but not English. ~ Diana Gabaldon

You may have it," he said. His voice was very low, but he met my eyes straight on. "All of it. Anything that was ever done to me. If ye wish it, if it helps ye, I will live it through again. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Well, I can't remember not being able to read. I was told I could read by myself very well at the age of three. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Ugh. Intense, yeah. Whew." She smiled, a little lopsidedly. "At least at baseball games you get to drink beer and eat hot dogs in the boring parts." Jamie, grasping at the only part of this conversation that made sense, leaned forward. "There's a crock of small beer, cool in the pantry," he said, peering anxiously at Brianna. "Will I fetch it in?" "No," I said. "Not unless you want some; alcohol wouldn't be good for the baby." "Ah. What about the hot dog?" He stood up and flexed his hands, obviously preparing to dash out and shoot one. ~ Diana Gabaldon

There are things that I canna tell you, at least not yet. And I'll ask nothing of ye that ye canna give me. But what I would ask of ye
when you do tell me something, let it be the truth. And I'll promise ye the same. We have nothing now between us, save
respect, perhaps. And I think that respect has maybe room for secrets, but not for lies. Do ye agree? ~ Diana Gabaldon

Never give anything away for free - but sometimes it pays to oil the wheels a bit. ~ Diana Gabaldon

I only said I felt like God, Sassenach," he murmured. "I never said I was. ~ Diana Gabaldon

I fought back the memory of our wedding night. He was a virgin; his hands trembled when he touched me. I had been afraid too
with better reason. And then in the dawn he had held me, naked back against his chest, his thighs warm and strong behind my own, murmuring into the clouds of my hair, Dinna be afraid. There's two of us now. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Character, I think, is the single most important thing in fiction. You might read a book once for its interesting plot - but not twice. ~ Diana Gabaldon

It was very quiet here on the mountainside,
but, quiet in the of hills and forests. A quiet that wasn't silent at all, but composed of constant tiny sounds. It was small buzzing in the gorse bush nearby, of bees working the yellow flowers -dusty with pollen, far below was the rushing of the burn, a low note echoing the wind above stirring leaves and rattling twigs sighing past the jutting boulders. ~ Diana Gabaldon

You are safe," he said firmly. "You have my name and my family, my clan, and if necessary, the protection of my body as well. The man willna lay hands on ye again, while I live. ~ Diana Gabaldon

The room was as big as the Duke of Pardloe's library and had at least as many books, and yet the feeling of it was more akin to a small cluttered hole (Pardloe's)
You could tell from the books whether a library was meant for show or not, Books that were usedhad an open, interested feel to them, even when closed and neatly lined up on a shelf in strict order. You felt as though the book took on as much interest in you as you did in it and it was willing you to reach for it. ~ Diana Gabaldon

The small, homely scar of a smallpox vaccination. Rain ~ Diana Gabaldon

Money is a good bridle, but a weak rein. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Two hundred years from now, she had - I will? she thought wildly - stood in front of this portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, furiously denying the truth that it showed. Ellen MacKenzie looked out at her now as she had then; long-necked and regal, slanted eyes showing a humor that did not quite touch the tender mouth. It wasn't a mirror image, by any means; Ellen's forehead was high, narrower than Brianna's, and the chin was round, not pointed, her whole face somewhat softer and less bold in its features. But the resemblance was there, and pronounced enough to be startling; the wide cheekbones and lush red hair were the same. And around her neck was the string of pearls, gold roundels bright in the soft spring sun. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Between hell now, and hell later, Sassenach," he said, his speech measured and precise, "I will take later, every time. ~ Diana Gabaldon

For a moment, I saw him as he had looked the morning I married him. Duine uasal was what he looked, a man of worth. But the bold face above the lace was the same, older now, but wiser with it - yet the tilt of his shining head and the set of the wide, firm mouth, the slanted clear cat-eyes that looked into my own, were just the same. Here was a man who had always known his worth. ~ Diana Gabaldon

For a moment, half blinded by dirt, I couldn't see Jamie at all. Then I spotted him. He was under the bear, one arm locked around its neck, his head tucked into the joint of the shoulder just under the drooling jaws. ~ Diana Gabaldon

She hesitated for a long moment, but then nodded quickly, as though afraid she would regret the action if she paused to think about it longer. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Jamie, my dearie," his sister said sweetly. "D'ye ~ Diana Gabaldon

respect for your elders was one of the cornerstones of civilized behavior, ~ Diana Gabaldon

I haven't," I said shortly. "But I've the sense I was born with, and two ears in good working order. And whatever 'King George's health' may be in Gaelic, I doubt very much that it sounds like 'Bragh Stuart.' " He tossed back his head and laughed. "That it doesna," he agreed. "I'd tell ye the proper Gaelic for your liege lord and ruler, but it isna a word suitable for the lips of a lady, Sassenach or no. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Was awakened abruptly just after dawn by a tiny stinging sensation on top of my head. I blinked and put up a hand to investigate. The movement startled a large gray jay who had been pulling hairs out of my head, and he shot up into a nearby pine tree, screeching hysterically. "Serve you right, mate," I muttered, rubbing the top of my head, but couldn't help smiling. I had been told often enough that my hair looked like a bird's nest first thing in the morning; perhaps there was something to it, after all. ~ Diana Gabaldon

What, she's taken the hairs off her honeypot?" he said, horrified into uncharacteristic vulgarity. ~ Diana Gabaldon

No, sir. Now that his lordship is here, though, we can proceed. I'll tell Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart; he's to chair the proceeding. ~ Diana Gabaldon

There's nay shame to ha' fallen in battle, mo caraidh," he said softly. "The greatest of warriors may be overcome. ~ Diana Gabaldon

I sat down quietly in a corner with my glass of port, and kept quiet while Simon questioned Jamie once again about Charles Stuart's situation and prospects. ~ Diana Gabaldon

An eye-jangling assortment of spurious clan tartans, adorning every conceivable object made of fabric, from caps, neckties, and serviettes down to a particularly horrid yellow "Buchanan" sett used to make men's nylon Y-front underpants. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Do you really think we'll ever
"
"I do," he said with certainty, not letting me finish. He leaned over and kissed my forehead. "I know it, Sassenach, and so do you. You were meant to be a mother, and I surely dinna intend to let anyone else father your children. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Sometimes our best action result in things that are most regrettable. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Getting up once in the dark to go adventuring is a lark. Twice in two days smacks of masochism. ~ Diana Gabaldon

But, like many ideas, that one was more appealing in concept than in execution ~ Diana Gabaldon

Filial respect caused Grey to hesitate in passing ex post facto opinions on his mother's judgment, but after half an hour in the company of either Paul or Edgar, he could not escape a lurking suspicion that a just Providence, seeing the DeVanes so well endowed with physical beauty, had determined that there was no reason to spoil the work by adding intelligence to the mix. ~ Diana Gabaldon

I had kissed my share of men, particularly during the war years, when flirtation and instant romance were the light-minded companions of death and uncertainty. Jamie, thought, was something different. His extreme gentleness was in no way tentative; rather it was a promise of power known and held in leash; a challenge and a provocation the more remarkable for its lack of demand. I am yours, it said. And if you will have me, then ... ~ Diana Gabaldon

All right you bloody Scottish bastard, lets see how stubborn you really are. ~ Diana Gabaldon

The phrase "Blessed are those who have not seen but have believed" floated through his head. It was maybe not the believing that was the blessing; it was the not having to look. Seeing, sometimes, was bloody awful. ~ Diana Gabaldon

And the chief difference is this: that people will treat with disdain such phenomena as are proved by the evidence of the senses, and commonly experienced - while they will defend to the death the reality of a phenomenon which they have neither seen nor experienced. "Faith is as powerful a force as science," he concluded, voice soft in the darkness, " - but far more dangerous. ~ Diana Gabaldon

For several days, I slept. Whether this was a necessary part of physical recovery, or a stubborn retreat from waking reality, I do not know, but I woke only reluctantly to take a little food, falling at once back into a stupor of oblivion, as though the small, warm weight of broth in my stomach were an anchor that pulled me after it, down through the murky fathoms of sleep. ~ Diana Gabaldon

He kissed my forehead gently. "Loving you has put me through hell more than once, Sassenach; I'll risk it again, if need be." "Bah," I said. "And you think loving you has been a bed of roses, do you?" This time he laughed out loud. "No," he said, "but you'll maybe keep doing it?" "Maybe I will, at that." "You're a verra stubborn woman," he said, the smile clear in his voice. ~ Diana Gabaldon

He had them now, everyone warmed by the glow of good humor, attention attracted by the small flashes of gilt and glitter. Now they would follow him without flagging or complaint, along the path of logic and into the thickets of discussion. A certain tenseness left his neck as he felt the students' attention settle and fix on him. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Let me tell ye in your sleep how much I love you. For there's no so much I can be saying to ye while ye wake, but the same poor words, again and again. While ye sleep in my arms, I can say things to ye that would be daft and silly waking, and your dreams will know the truth of them. Go ~ Diana Gabaldon

I am a Highlander," Jamie said bleakly. He glanced once more at the far bank, where occasional glimpses of tartan showed through the mist, and then back. The shouting echoed from the fog. "And I am the sire of Americans. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Snatched out of my own small niche by an unexpected strong current, taken in and surrounded by Jamie and his life. Caught forever among the strange currents that pulsed through this outlandish environment. The ~ Diana Gabaldon

The power and the danger of magic lie in the people who believe it. ~ Diana Gabaldon

D'ye ken that the only time I am without pain is in your bed, Sassenach? When I take ye, when I lie in your arms-my wounds are healed, then, my scars forgotten. ~ Diana Gabaldon

I am thinking that you're verra beautiful, Sassenach," he said softly.
"Maybe if one has a taste for gooseflesh on a large scale," I said tartly, stepping out of the tub and reaching for the cup.
He grinned suddenly at me, teeth flashing white in the dimness of the cellar. "Oh, aye," he said. "Well, you're speaking to the only man in Scotland who has a terrible cockstand at sight of a plucked chicken. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Superstition and sensation are always so much more appealing than truth and rationality. The ~ Diana Gabaldon

Blood of my blood ... " I whispered. "Bone of my bone." His whisper was deep and husky. He knelt quite suddenly before me, and put his folded hands in mine; the gesture a Highlander makes when swearing loyalty to his chieftain. "I give ye my spirit," he said, head bent over our hands. " 'Til our life shall be done," I said softly. "But it isn't done yet, Jamie, is it?" Then he rose and took the shift from me, and I lay back on the narrow bed naked, pulled him down to me through the soft yellow light, and took him home, and home, and home again, and we were neither one of us alone. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Dinna fash yourself, Sassenach. Ye canna say more than ye know, but tell me it all, just once more. ~ Diana Gabaldon

All over the clearing, the same thing was happening; the women gave not an inch, but their men stepped out before them. Anyone coming into the clearing would think that the women had melted into invisibility, leaving an implacable phalanx of Scotsmen staring down the glen. ~ Diana Gabaldon

She raised a thick, ruddy brow at him. "You never heard of benign hypocrisy? I thought they teach you stuff like that when you go to minister school. Since you mention gassing away about morality. That's a minister's job, too, isn't it? ~ Diana Gabaldon

If you don't," she said sweetly, "I'll tell my father you made improper advances to me. He'll have the skin flayed off your back. ~ Diana Gabaldon

But the years between now and then had been hard ones - and compassion was a soft emotion, easily eroded by circumstance. ~ Diana Gabaldon

conversation turned ineluctably toward ~ Diana Gabaldon

Did ye know that the silkies put aside their skins when they come ashore, and walk like men? And if ye find a silkie's skin and hide it, he - or she - " he added, fairly, "canna go into the sea again, but must stay with ye on the land. ~ Diana Gabaldon