I am human. Like all humans, I do not remember my birth. By the time we wake up to ourselves, we are little children, and our advent is something that happened an eternity ago, at the beginning of time. We live like latecomers to the theater; we must catch up as best we can, divining the begging from the shape of later events. - Vida Winter
Diane SetterfieldOnce upon a time there was a fairy godmother, but the rest of the time there was none. This story is about one of those other times.
Diane SetterfieldThere are too many books in the world to read in a single lifetime; you have to draw the line somewhere.
Diane SetterfieldThere is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic.
Diane SetterfieldBut silence is not a natural environment for stories. They need words. Without them they grown pale, sicken and die. And then they haunt you.
Diane SetterfieldTo anyone who took the trouble to look, I was plainly visible, but when people are expecting to see nothing, that is usually what they see.
Diane SetterfieldYou are suffering from an ailment that affects ladies of romantic imaginations. Symptoms include fainting, weariness, loss of appetite, low spirits. While on one level the crisis can be ascribed to wandering about in freezing rain without the benefit of adequate waterproofing, the deeper cause is more likely to be found in some emotional trauma. However, unlike the heroines of your favorite novels, your constitution has not been weakened by the privations of life in earlier, harsher centuries. No tuberculosis, no childhood polio, no unhygienic living conditions. You'll survive.' " pg. 303
Diane Setterfield