Joanne Harris Quotes

Sometimes survival is the worst alternative there is ~ Joanne Harris

I don't tend to do category fiction very well. One of my problems when I was starting off was that publishers were hesitant to handle my books because they were never sure what I was going to do next. ~ Joanne Harris

Wild birds will kill exotic ones: the budgies and the lovebirds and the yellow canaries
escaped from their cages and hoping to get a taste of the sky
usually end up back on the ground, plucked raw by their more conformist cousins ~ Joanne Harris

There was a quote he could not quite remember, something about the past being an island surrounded by time. He had missed the last boat to the island. ~ Joanne Harris

There's also a lot of random stuff about poetry, flowers and lute music, plus kissing and cuddling (lots of this), wearing similar outfits, talking incessantly about the current object of devotion, and generally losing one's faculties. ~ Joanne Harris

I was a very bad accountant; I didn't care about money, golf or discovering fraud. After about a year I was sacked; then I went into teacher training. ~ Joanne Harris

Better a king in the gutter,' he said, 'than a slave in an emperor's place ~ Joanne Harris

Now into the small ceramic pan I grate the block of couverture. Almost at once the scent rises, the dark and loamy scent of bitter chocolate from the block. At this concentration it is slow to melt; the chocolate is very low in fat, and I will have to add butter and cream to the mixture to bring it to truffle consistency. But now it smells of history; of the mountains and forests of South America' of felled wood and spilled sap and campfire smoke. It smells of incense and patchouli; of the black gold of the Maya and the red gold of the Aztec; of stone and dust and of a young girl with flowers in her hair and a cup of pulque in her hand.
It is intoxicating; as it melts, the chocolate becomes glossy; steam rises from the copper pan, and the scent grows richer, blossoming into cinnamon and allspice and nutmeg; dark undertones of anise and espresso; brighter notes of vanilla and ginger. Now it is almost melted through. A gentle vapor rises from the pan. Now we have the true Theobroma, the elixir of the gods in volatile form, and in the steam I can almost see-
A young girl dancing with the moon. A rabbit follows at her heels. Behind her stands a woman with her head in shadow, so that for a moment she seems to look three ways-
But now the steam is getting too thick. The chocolate must be no warmer than forty-six degrees. Too hot, and the chocolate will scorch and streak. Too cool, and it will bloom white and dull. I know by the scent and the level of steam that we ar ~ Joanne Harris

Some things can be both real and imaginary at the same time, ... some lies can be true, ... broken faith may be restored. ~ Joanne Harris

Gods? Don't let that impress you. Anyone can be a god if they have enough worshippers. You don't even have to have powers anymore. In my time I've seen theatre gods, gladiator gods, even storyteller gods - you people see gods everywhere. Gives you an excuse for not thinking for yourselves.
God is just a word. Like Fury. like demon, Just words people use for things they don't understand. Reverse it and you get dog. It's just as appropriate. ~ Joanne Harris

Why can't they see, mon père? Why can't they see what the woman is doing to us? Breaking down our community spirit, our sense of purpose. playing on what is worst and weakest in the secret heart. Earning for herself a kind of affection, of loyalty that - God help me! - I am weak enough to covet. ~ Joanne Harris

You don't write because someone sets assignments! You write because you need to write, or because you hope someone will listen or because writing will mend something broken inside you or bring something back to life. ~ Joanne Harris

It's too early for strawberries. But the clearing is filled with their leaves and their little white flowers, like fallen stars. The wishing well was covered, too, so that only someone who knew it was there would have really noticed it. It looks like a barrow under the green; somewhere fairies or goblins might live. ~ Joanne Harris

And yet I could still hear them. As if some part of their essence had evaporated into the air, become a part of this place, ingrained, like the scent of cigarettes and burning sugar, in the woodwork and plaster. Everything was buzzing with that vanished presence, buzzing and singing and laughing louder than ever before, stone and tile and polished wood, all whispering with agitation and excitement; never still, never silent. ~ Joanne Harris

I'm insatiably curious. ~ Joanne Harris

Wine talks; ask anyone. The oracle at the street corner; the uninvited guest at the wedding feast; the holy fool. It ventriloquizes. It has a million voices. It unleashes the tongue, teasing out secrets you never meant to tell, secrets you never even knew. It shouts, rants, whispers. It speaks of great plans, tragic loves, and terrible betrayals. It screams with laughter. It chuckles softly to itself. It weeps in front of its own reflection. It revives summers long past and memories best forgotten. Every bottle a whiff of other times, other places, everyone ... a humble miracle ~ Joanne Harris

I like autumn. The drama of it; the golden lion roaring through the back door of the year, shaking its mane of leaves. A dangerous time; of violent rages and deceptive calm, of fireworks in the pockets and conkers in the fist. ~ Joanne Harris

A named thing is a tamed thing. ~ Joanne Harris

Anything that can be dreamed is true. ~ Joanne Harris

And if I never have a veil, or a golden ring on my hand, I will still have you, my love, and that will be enough for me. Sleep well, love, and dream of me. And know that, if I were to live for a thousand years, there would still not be enough nights in which to dream of you. ~ Joanne Harris

A demon, if you prefer the term; although to be honest, the difference between god and a demon is really only a matter of perspective. ~ Joanne Harris

That wind. I see it's blowing now. Furtive but commanding, it has dictated every move we've ever made. My mother felt it, and so do I - even here, even now - as it sweeps us like leaves into his backseat corner, dancing us to shreds against the stones. V'la l'bon vent, v'a l'joli vent. I though we'd silenced it for good. But the smallest thing can wake the wind@ a word, a sign, even a death. There's no such thing as a trivial thing. Everything costs; it all adds up until finally the balance shifts and we're gone again, back on the road, telling ourselves - well maybe next time ~ Joanne Harris

Children are knives, my mother once said. They don't mean to, but they cut. And yet we cling to them, don't we, we clasp them until the blood flows. ~ Joanne Harris

Sometimes, being told not to do something just makes us want it all the more. Sometimes, a little of what you crave is better than total abstinence. ~ Joanne Harris

We have travelled into the past and returned to find that our present is not quite the same as we left it. Atticus Finch will never again be the white knight we once thought him.
And yet the mockingbird still sings - no longer a song of innocence, but maybe one of experience; a song that combines sorrow, forgiveness - and, ultimately, a kind of hope. ~ Joanne Harris

There's no such thing as magic," I said.
"Then call it something else." She shrugged. "Call it attitude, if you like. Call it charisma, or chutzpah, or glamour, or charm. Because basically it's just about standing straight, looking people in the eye, shooting them a killer smile, and saying, fuck off, I'm fabulous. ~ Joanne Harris

If you can actually get someone to sit on the edge of their seat and feel nervous if there's a knock at the door, then you've done something pretty terrific as a writer. ~ Joanne Harris

My heroes and heroines are often unlikely people who are dragged into situations without meaning to become involved, or people with a past that has never quite left them. They are often isolated, introspective people, often confrontational or anarchic in some way, often damaged or secretly unhappy or incomplete. ~ Joanne Harris

He drank, for the same reason he wrote second-rate science fiction. Not to forget but to remember, to open the past and find himself there again. He opened each bottle, began each story with the secret conviction that here was the magic drought that would restore him. But magic, like wine, needs the right conditions in order to work. ~ Joanne Harris

No one should be so precious as to refuse criticism of their work. But to respect an opinion, we have to know that it was given honestly and with proper thought. ~ Joanne Harris

The great thing about books is that you can end with a question mark. ~ Joanne Harris

It may be something to do with my having been to a girls' school, but I'm far more comfortable making male friendships than female ones. My friends tend to be men and their significant others. ~ Joanne Harris

One of the things that writing has taught me is that fiction has a life of its own. Fictional places are sometimes more real than the view from our bedroom window. Fictional people can sometimes become as close to us as our loved ones. ~ Joanne Harris

Guilleaume left La Praline with a small bag of florentines in his pocket; before he had turned the corner of avenue des Francs Bourgeois I saw him stoop to offer one to the dog. A pat, a bark, a wagging of the short stubby tail. As I said, some people never have to think about giving. ~ Joanne Harris

I'm phobic about the idea of being constrained. ~ Joanne Harris

I love so many books and authors that it's hard to name just a few, but I'm always particularly excited when new books by Alice Hoffman, John Crowley, Joanne Harris, Elizabeth Knox, and Patricia McKillip come out. (And, of course, books by Ellen [Kushner], and Holly [Black], and the rest of the Bordertown crew!) I'm impatiently looking forward to Susanna Clarke's next book too.
Aside from writing and reading, my favorite things to do are paint, walk in the countryside with my dog, and listen to music
especially when it's live and it's played by friends. Fortunately there's a lot of live music where I live. ~ Terri Windling

I can write absolutely anywhere. All I need is a laptop. ~ Joanne Harris

The day stretched out in front of him like an empty road in the desert. ~ Joanne Harris

I believe that being happy is the only important thing. Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or torturous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive. ~ Joanne Harris

I first saw the island of Noirmoutier when I was two weeks old. I think it's probably safe to say that I didn't fully appreciate it at the time; but I grew to love it as year after year I spent holidays there at my grandparents' cottage. ~ Joanne Harris

I envy the table its scars, the scorch marks caused by the hot bread tins. I envy its calm sense of time, and I wish I could say: I did this five years ago. I made this mark, this ring caused by a wet coffee cup, this cigarette burn, this ladder of cuts against the wood's coarse grain. This is where Anouk carved her initials, the year she was six years old, this secret place behind the table leg. I did this on a warm day seven summers ago with the carving knife. Do you remember? Do you remember the summer the river ran dry? Do you remember? I envy the table's calm sense of place. It has been here a long time. It belongs. ~ Joanne Harris

Love not often, but forever. It's one of my mother's sayings, and all my life it has been the story of my heart ... Love for my mother; love for my friends; the dark and complex love of a woman for a man. But when Fleur was born, everything changed. A man who has never seen it may think he understands the ocean; but he thinks only of what he knows ... The reality, however, is beyond imagining: the scents, the sounds, the anguish, and the joy of it beyond any comparison with previous experience. That was Fleur. For the first instant, ... I knew that the world had changed. I had been alone and had never know it; had traveled, fought, suffered, danced, fornicated, loved, hated, grieved, and triumphed all alone, living like an animal from day to day, caring for nothing; desiring nothing; fearing nothing. Suddenly now everything was different ... I was a mother. ~ Joanne Harris

So much of his life seemed to be like this now, a blur of days without anything to define them from each other, like episodes of a soap he watched out of habit, even though none of the characters interested him. ~ Joanne Harris

The advantage of travel is that after a while you begin to realize that wherever you go, most people aren't really all that much different. ~ Joanne Harris

The dead know everything but they don't give a damn. ~ Joanne Harris

If you want to know what's important to a culture, learn their language. ~ Joanne Harris

Call me cynical if you like. But it all sounds a bit too convenient. The Authorized Version of events leaves out a number of details, which Creationists seem content to ignore. I personally have my doubts – not least about the giant cow – although even now you have to beware of how you express these sentiments. ~ Joanne Harris

In any case, fire burns; that's its nature, and you can't expect to change that. You can use it to cook your meat or to burn down your neighbor's house. And is the fire you use for cooking any different from the one you use for burning? And does that mean you should eat your supper raw?"
Maddy shook her head, still puzzled. "So what you're saying is ... I shouldn't play with fire," she said at last.
Of course you should," said One-Eye gently. "But don't be surprised if the fire plays back. ~ Joanne Harris

A little tantrum in real life seems so much bigger online. ~ Joanne Harris

I was convinced I'd hate Twitter - but I've come to like it very much. I use it mostly to keep in touch with friends and colleagues I wish I could see more often - I sometimes feel a little isolated living in Yorkshire, and it's nice to have the contact. ~ Joanne Harris

I liked her better for showing a little spirit. ~ Joanne Harris

What is it that the slave dreams? The slave dreams of being the master. ~ Joanne Harris

A man who casts no shadow isn't really a man at all. ~ Joanne Harris

The real magic - the magic we'd lived with all our lives, my mother's magic of charms and cantrips, of salt by the door and a red silk sachet to placate the little gods - had turned sour on us that summer, somehow, like a spider that turns from good luck to bad at the stroke of midnight, spinning its web to catch our dreams. And for every little spell of charm, for every card dealt and every rune cast and every sign scratched against a doorway to divert the path of malchance, the wind just blew a little harder, tugging at our clothes, sniffing at us like a hungry dog, moving us here and moving us there. ~ Joanne Harris

When I write, I'm constantly putting myself in the position of someone else as I write using myriad voices; I think that's a life skill all people should learn. ~ Joanne Harris

Nat Parson says it's the devil's mark."
"Nat Parson's a gobshite."
Maddy was torn between a natural feeling of sacrilege and a deep admiration of anyone who dared call a parson 'gobshite. ~ Joanne Harris

I have never belonged to a tribe. It gives me a different perspective. Perhaps if I did, I too would feel ill at ease in Les Marauds. But I have always been different. Perhaps that's why I find it easier to cross the narrow boundaries between one tribe and the next. To belong so often means to exclude; to think in terms of us and them - to little words that, juxtaposed, so often lead to conflict. ~ Joanne Harris

Clones fit in. Freaks stand out. Ask me which one I prefer. ~ Joanne Harris

A problem shared is a problem solved. ~ Joanne Harris

Too much balast slows you down. ~ Joanne Harris

The air is hot and rich with the scent of chocolate. Quite unlike the white powdery chocolate I knew as a boy, this has a throaty richness like the perfumed beans from the coffee stall on the market, a redolence of amaretto and tiramisù, a smoky, burned flavor that enters my mouth somehow and makes it water. There is a silver jug of the stuff on the counter, from which a vapor rises. I recall that I have not breakfasted this morning. ~ Joanne Harris

I know you," said Maddy. "You're -"
"What's a name?" Loki grinned. "Wear it like a coat; turn it, burn it, throw it aside, and borrow another. One-Eye knows; you should ask him."
"But Loki died," she said, shaking her head. "He died on the field at Ragnarok."
"Not quite." He pulled a face. "You know there's rather a lot the Oracle didn't foretell, and old tales have a habit of getting twisted."
"But in any case, that was centuries ago," Maddy said bewildered. "I mean - that was the End of the World, wasn't it?"
"So?" said Loki impatiently. "This isn't the first time the world has come to an end, and it won't be the last either. ~ Joanne Harris

There she goes. How strange she is: my winter child; my changeling. Wild as an armful of birds, she flies everywhere in an instant. There is no keeping her inside, no making her sit quietly. She has never been like other girls, never like other children. Rosette is a force of nature, like the jackdaws that sit on the steeple and laugh, like a fall of unseasonal snow, like the blossom on the wind. ~ Joanne Harris

Library-denigrators, pay heed: suggesting that the Internet is a viable substitute for libraries is like saying porn could replace your wife. ~ Joanne Harris

You see, I do believe in miracles. I, who have passed through fire. I do believe. ~ Joanne Harris

All schools have their skeletons. St Oswald's is no exception. Most of the time, we try our best to keep them in the closet. But this time, the only recourse we have is to throw open all the closets, light as many bulbs as we can and catch the vermin as it comes out. ~ Joanne Harris

I have a tendency to pick up my own challenges. The more difficult something it is, the more I want to try it. ~ Joanne Harris

She always had that about her, that look of otherness, of eyes that see things much too far, and of thoughts that wander off the edge of the world. ~ Joanne Harris

All right, Monsieur Jay,' she said, smiling. 'I'll tell them you're OK. ~ Joanne Harris

In return, Joe taught Jay more about the garden. Slowly the boy learned to tell lavender from rosemary from hyssop from sage. He learned to taste soil- a pinch between the finger and thumb slipped under the tongue, like a man testing fine tobacco- to determine its acidity. He learned how to calm a headache with crushed lavender, or a stomachache with peppermint. He learned to prepare skullcap tea and chamomile to aid sleep. He learned to plant marigolds in the potato patch to discourage parasites and to pick nettles from the top to make ale and to fork the sign against the evil eye if ever a magpie flew past. ~ Joanne Harris

Protected from the sun by the half-blind that shields them, they gleam darkly, like sunken treasure, Aladdin's cave of sweet clichés. ~ Joanne Harris

A few hundred years ago there were no differences between magic and medicine. ~ Joanne Harris

If you were to be stranded on a desert island, what three items would you take? I gave this frivolous answer: A cat, a hat and a piece of string. ~ Joanne Harris

My mother have taught me that food is a universal passport. Whatever the constraints of language, culture or geography, food crosses over all boundaries. To offer food is to extend the hand of friendship; to accept is to be accepted into the most closed of communities. I ~ Joanne Harris

There were a few compensations to having corporeal Aspect. Food (jam tarts were my favourites); drink (mostly wine and mead); setting things on fire; sex (although I was still extremely confused by all the taboos surrounding this - no animals, no siblings, no men, no married women, no demons - frankly, it was amazing to me that anyone had sex at all, with so many rules against it). ~ Joanne Harris

Garden work clears the mind. ~ Joanne Harris

Weeds and wheat cannot grow peacefully together. Any gardener could tell you the same thing. ~ Joanne Harris

I've never been very good at leaving things behind. I tried, but I have always left fragments of myself there too, like seeds awaiting their chance to grow. ~ Joanne Harris

The process of giving is without limits. ~ Joanne Harris

The serpent eating itself, tail-first. We live to repeat the same mistakes, to push away the ones we love, to move on when we want to stay, to wait in silence when we should speak. In the life we have chosen to lead, loss is the only constant. Loss, that eats up everything – like the snake, even itself. ~ Joanne Harris

I don't pretend to know much about love, but that's how great love comes to an end, not in the flames of passion, but in the silence of regret. ~ Joanne Harris

Polite contempt. The barbed and poisonous weapon of the righteous. ~ Joanne Harris

People reveal so much of their mental processes online, simply because the psychological effect of anonymity just means that a whole raft of inhibitions are left alone when people log on. ~ Joanne Harris

A man may plant a tree for a number of reasons. Perhaps he likes trees. Perhaps he wants shelter. Or perhaps he knows that someday he may need the firewood. ~ Joanne Harris

It's never too late to come home," he said, and pulled me gently, insistently toward him."All you have to do ... is stop moving away. ~ Joanne Harris

Think about it for a while. How can you hope to have any friends when you spy on everything they do? How can you enjoy the present when you can see the future? Most of all, how can you love when you know Death lies in waiting? ~ Joanne Harris

Don't worry so much about 'not supposed to'. ~ Joanne Harris

I dream a lot, in colour and in sound and scent. Quite a few of my stories have come from dreams. ~ Joanne Harris

Everything comes home, my mother used to say; every word spoken, every shadow cast, every footprint in the sand. It can't be helped; it's part of what makes us who we are. ~ Joanne Harris

If I'm going to die today, the least I can do is look fabulous while I'm doing it. ~ Joanne Harris

Work. Like pain, I sensed that this was an experience I would want to avoid as often as possible. ~ Joanne Harris

What is a writer of fiction but a liar with a licence? ~ Joanne Harris

And Odin should have known from the first that perfect Order does not bend; it simply stands until it breaks, which is why it rarely survives for any meaningful length of time. ~ Joanne Harris

The process of writing is a little like madness, a kind of possession not altogether benign. ~ Joanne Harris

No point carrying useless ballast. It won't change a thing. ~ Joanne Harris

At such times I feel I could die for love of her, my little stranger, my heart swelling dangerously so that the only release is to run too, my red coat flapping around my shoulders like wings, my hair a comet's tail in the patchy blue sky. ~ Joanne Harris

I'd rather be a freak than a clone. ~ Joanne Harris

Magical properties were attributed to it. Its brew was sipped on the steps of sacrificial temples; its ecstasies were fierce and terrible. Is this what he fears? Corruption by pleasure, the subtle transubstantiation of the flesh into a vessel for debauch? ~ Joanne Harris

I don't think that white collar gives you sole right of access to the divine. ~ Joanne Harris

All those moments, those memories. Everything that we are, compressed in just two or three kilos of paper - the weight of a human heart. ~ Joanne Harris