Elizabeth Wein

“I realized I would be forced to run away from home if someone tried to arrange a marriage for me. I didn't want to think about it.”

“These are just stories, you know. They are part of what we are, but they are not the real thing. All this year I’ve been thinking, What would White Raven do? And today, every time I thought it, I just didn’t care what White Raven would do. So today I’ve just done what I would do. I’ve just done what I think is right. I’m not going to stop making up stories. But I’m thinking now that they aren’t just for pretending to be someone else, someone more exciting, someone braver than you really are. They are not always jut a maze to get lost in so you can run away from life. They can just as well be maps to help you navigate.”

“It was wonderful flirting with him, all the razor-edged literary banter, like Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. A battle of wit, and a test, too.”

“Looking up at the stars and smoking in silence.”

“But a part of me lies buried in lace and roses on a riverbank in France-a part of me is broken off forever. A part of me will be unflyable, stuck in the climb.”

“She gave a low and delighted chuckle. Her eyes were black as a moonless December night and reflected the electric lights like stars.”

“It had never occurred to me that simply being with a fellow prisoner would make me feel like I was still in prison.”

“Incredible. It is just incredible that you can notice something like that when your face is so cold you can't feel it anymore, and you know perfectly well you are surrounded by death, and the only way to stay alive is to endure the howling wind and hold your course. And still the sky is beautiful.”

“There’s glory and honour in being chosen. But not much room for free will”

“But people need lift, too. People don't get moving, they don't soar, they don't achieve great heights, without someone buoying them up.”

“It is possible there are some things you want so badly that you will change your life to make them happen.”

“I am like a ruined piece of parchment scrawled over and over again with your name, so many times it has become illegible.”

“Look at me!’ I screeched. ‘Look at me, Amadeus von Linden, you sadistic hypocrite, and watch this time! You’re not questioning me now, this isn’t your work, I’m not an enemy agent spewing wireless code! I’m just a minging Scots slag screaming insults at your daughter! So enjoy yourself and watch! Think of Isolde! Think of Isolde and watch!”

“I love the story of a thing. I love a thing for what it means a thousand times more than for what it's worth.”

“The wave of memory had submerged me for a whole minute, while I'd just sat staring and let it all come flooding back.”

“Oh Julie, wouldn’t I know if you were dead? Wouldn’t I feel it happening, like a jolt of electricity to my heart?”

“Don't know how I kept going. You just do. You have to, so you do.”

“And I envied her that she had chosen her work herself and was doing what she wanted to do. I don't suppose I had any idea what I 'wanted' and so I was chosen, not choosing. There's glory and honor in being chosen. But not much room for free will.”

“How does she do it? She makes it sound like she is so cut up to be giving them this information, and it's all just bumph out of her head. She never told them ANYTHING. I don't think she's given them the right name of any airfield in Britain except Mainsend and Buscot, which of course were where she was stationed. They could have easily checked. It's all so close to truth, and so glib--her aircraft identification is rather good considering what a fuss she makes about it. It makes me think of the first day I met her, giving those directions in German. So cool and crisp, such authority--suddenly she really was a radio operator, a German radio operator, she was so good at faking it. Or when I told her to be Jamie, how she just suddenly turned into Jamie.This confession of hers is rotten with error...”

“If you're scared, do something.”