The Silence Of The Girls Quotes
"We never called him any of those things; we called him 'the butcher.'"
"Nobody was ever allowed the last word; not even a god."
"But we both know if you weren't immortal, you'd be dead."
"I felt the only time he'd actually seen me was that one brief moment of scrutiny when I'd been paraded in front of him."
"This is what free people never understand. A slave isn't a person who's being treated as a thing. A slave is a thing."
"How do you separate a tiger's beauty from its ferocity? Or a cheetah's elegance from the speed of its attack?"
"Achilles was like that—the beauty and the terror were two sides of a single coin."
"He made love as if he hoped the next fuck would kill me."
"Old man, take your ransom and go. You’ve got away with your life this time, but if I catch you in the camp again the staff and bands of the god won’t save you."
"I’m not going to give her back. She’ll spend the rest of her life in my palace, far from her native land, working at the looms by day, sleeping in my bed at night, bearing my children."
"Run. Go on, run. Get back to the hut. He might send for you."
"Lord of light, hear me! Lord of the silver bow, hear me!"
"Lord of Tenedos, hear me! Lord of Scylla, hear me! If ever I sacrificed lambs and goats on your altar, Revenge your priest!"
"Smintheus Apollo, hear me! Lord whose arrows strike from afar, hear me! Lord of mice, hear me!"
"Lord of mice, hear me! Lord of the silver bow, hear me! Lord whose arrows strike from afar, hear me! God of plague, hear me!"
"Why didn’t he take it? He’s the greediest man alive."
"He doesn’t want to be left with nothing—and if you don’t give me a prize, all right, I’ll take one."
"I’ll fetch the bloody girl myself, I won’t send anybody else, I’ll go myself—and then you’ll all see what happens to a man who dares to pretend he’s my equal!"
"Would you really have married the man who’d killed your brothers?"
"Comrades-in-arms: commendably virile. The truth: Patroclus had taken his mother’s place."
"Poor Helen, raped on a riverbank when she was only ten."
"I think I was groping after something I wasn’t old enough to understand. What I came away with was a sense of Helen seizing control of her own story."
"In return, he has to acknowledge my authority as commander-in-chief."
"They were so close; closer than they’d seemed from the stern of his ship."
"I’d have liked to slip into the women’s huts, but I didn’t dare."
"She’d become Achilles. Isn’t that love’s highest aim?"
"I’m not made of stone—and apparently you are."
"No, I know, you’ve heard it all before. Doesn’t mean it’s stopped being true."
"I hadn’t been himself all day, not since early morning when he woke to find Patroclus standing, naked, in front of the bronze mirror."
"Achilles laughed as he said it, but he knew his voice sounded shaky."
"Nothing could be done about the hinge, but at least the straps could be adjusted."
""You know," Achilles said, "I’m beginning to think this might work.""
""But it really doesn’t matter who came next—he forgets the men he kills.""
""I wish you’d stop saying everything’s fine.""
""Burn me, Achilles. The dead won’t let me in, they won’t let me cross the river.""
""Nevertheless. Orders are orders and have to be obeyed.""
""And yet, just recently, he’s noticed…Not withdrawal, exactly, but a degree of wariness.""
""He tries to think, but his mind’s gone blank.""
""But every morning, he’s compelled to drive his chariot round and round Patroclus’s grave.""
""He can’t sleep. Can’t eat, can’t sleep, can’t play the lyre—and now, apparently, can’t fuck…Useless.""
""If I’d fed him to the dogs there’d be nothing left for you to take home.""
""That’s what he needs to do now: see Hector, piss on whatever’s left of him, and then give Patroclus funeral games fit for a king.""
""You do what no man before me has ever done, I kiss the hands of the man who killed my son.""
"Even here, at life’s end, in the presence of his enemy, he can’t stop himself wondering what it would be like to be young again."
"Achilles sits down and takes a sip of wine, but he seems restless and soon jumps up again."
"When both cups are full the girl withdraws, silently, into the shadows."
"But I could sense his relief when, his duty as a guest done, he was able to push the plate away."
"They seemed to be standing at opposite ends of a time tunnel."
"I thought: And I do what countless women before me have been forced to do."
"I’m not Helen’s friend anymore. I’m Achilles’s slave."
"I remember it as a strange time; a time out of time."
"It doesn’t matter to them if they have a big funeral or not. It’s just for the living, all that."
"Every morning, Alcimus sits on the veranda steps polishing his armour."
"His life rests like a dandelion clock on the palm of his open hand."
"She’s the father of my first child. But saying goodbye to him that day was difficult."
"In spite of Achilles, in spite of my aching hips and thighs."
"I was praying he’d fall asleep quickly, but he was as full of energy as I’d ever known him."