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c2fb631
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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?
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Diana Gabaldon |
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4be120f
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It had occurred to me briefly to wonder why he had worn his kilt this morning, instead of changing to breeks; the crimson tartan might be quite literally a red flag to a bull, flaunted thus before an English soldier. Now I knew. They'd taken it from him once before, thinking to take with it pride and manhood. They had failed in that attempt, and he meant to underscore that failure, whether it was sense to do so or not. Sense had little to d..
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Diana Gabaldon |
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8509ea9
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One never stops to think what underlies romance. Tragedy and terror, transmuted by time.
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Diana Gabaldon |
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91a5937
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Pero ?no te das cuenta de que la nocion de la muerte entre nosotros es muy poca cosa, Claire? --susurro. Mis manos se cerraron contra su pecho. No, no pensaba que fuera poca cosa. --Todo el tiempo, cuando me dejaste despues de Culloden, estuve muerto, ?no es asi? --Crei que estabas muerto. Por eso... --Dentro de doscientos anos seguro que estare muerto, Sassenach --dijo sonriendo--. A causa de los indios, los animales salvajes, una plaga..
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Diana Gabaldon |
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e1376d8
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It was a blur," people say. What they really mean is the impossibility of anyone truly entering such an experience from outside, the futility of explanation."
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Diana Gabaldon |
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89670a8
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It's always better if they see. Then they don't imagine things. So I didn't imagine, I remembered.
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remembering
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Diana Gabaldon |
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8126feb
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As Grey put his hand on the pommel, he heard a low Scots voice murmur in his ear: "Queen's rook to king eight. Check." Grey laughed out loud, a burst of exhilaration pushing aside his disquiet. "Ha," he said, though without raising his voice. "Queen's bishop to knight four. Check. And mate, Mr ... MacKenzie."
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Diana Gabaldon |
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1274ea4
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He choked, laughed in a shocked way, wept a little more,
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Diana Gabaldon |
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45c2668
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Well, I say it is the place of science only to observe," he said. "To seek cause where it may be found, but to realize that there are many things in the world for which no cause shall be found; not because it does not exist, but because we know too little to find it. It is not the place of science to insist on explanation---but only to observe, in hopes that explanation will manifest itself."
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Diana Gabaldon |
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207d343
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Good sex scene is about the exchange of emotions, not bodily fluids
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sex
writing
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Diana Gabaldon |
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6857729
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There's a little trick called the Rule of Three: if you use any three of the five senses, it will make the scene immediately three-dimensional.
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sex
writing
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Diana Gabaldon |
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c15d62b
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There aren't many people like that--who will tell you the truth about themselves and anything else right out. I've only met three people like that, I think--four now," she said, her smile widening to warm him. "There was"
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Diana Gabaldon |
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0ea05f9
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I've yet to see the auld woman believes in witches, nor the young one, neither. It's men think there must be ill-wishes and magic in women, when it's only the natural way of the creatures.
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Diana Gabaldon |
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30d1f50
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Roger lay in the dust of the road, bruised, filthy, and starving, with a woman trembling and weeping against his chest, now and then giving him a small thump with her fist. He had never felt happier in his life.
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Diana Gabaldon |
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2db1faa
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Then I laid my head upon his chest and gave my dreams up to his keeping.
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Diana Gabaldon |
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dbc5a34
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Infatuation. It was common, among the nurses and the doctors, the nurses and the patients, among any gathering of people thrown for long periods into one another's company. Some acted on it, and brief, intense affairs were frequent. If they were lucky, the affair flamed out within a few months and nothing resulted from it. If they were not ... well. Pregnancy, divorce, here and there the odd case of venereal disease. Dangerous thing, infatu..
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Diana Gabaldon |
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5d39fed
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All the sounds of the house, from the creak of the back stair under an early-rising maid's foot, to the drumming rain on the roofslates, were sounds he had heard a thousand times before; heard so often, he didn't hear them anymore. I did.
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Diana Gabaldon |
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5313ab8
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There was a sudden whoosh from above, followed immediately by a blur before my eyes and a dull thud. Captain Randall was on the ground at my feet, under a heaving mass that looked like a bundle of old plaid rags. A brown, rocklike fist rose out of the mass and descended with considerable force, meeting decisively with some bony protuberance, by the sound of the resultant crack. The Captain's struggling legs, shiny in tall brown boots, relax..
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Diana Gabaldon |
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eb5c4bf
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Well, legends are many-legged beasties, aye? But they generally have at least one foot on the truth.
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Diana Gabaldon |
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66c43df
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a redheaded person with an empty stomach was a walking time bomb. I
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Diana Gabaldon |
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e0476e1
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Do women hold back the evolution of such things as freedom and other social ideals, out of fear for themselves or their children? Or do they in fact inspire such things--and the risks required to reach them--by providing the things worth fighting for?
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Diana Gabaldon |
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9a5b9b1
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could murder a plateful of eggs.
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Diana Gabaldon |
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072b45b
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Looking down on the assembly, standing patiently in the drizzle awaiting a verdict, I suddenly had a vivid understanding of something. Like so many, I had heard, appalled, the reports that trickled out of postwar Germany; the stories of deportations and mass murder, of concentration camps and burnings. And like so many others had done, and would do, for years to come, I had asked myself, "How could the people have let it happen? They must h..
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Diana Gabaldon |
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c5a36f3
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This is the grimoire of the witch, Geillis. It is a witch's name, and I take it for my own; what I was born does not matter, only what I will make of myself, only what I will become. And
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Diana Gabaldon |
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2ed18f0
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Being in a state of grace is all very well, but I imagine even Joan of Arc had qualms when they lit the first brand.
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Diana Gabaldon |
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5730ee4
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the chill. Grant's nose was
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Diana Gabaldon |
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1d1a73c
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Still, when had the right to live as one wished ever been considered trivial? Was a struggle to choose one's own destiny less worthwhile than the necessity to stop a great evil?
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Diana Gabaldon |
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f7ecc01
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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."
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Diana Gabaldon |
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c68e88b
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When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
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Diana Gabaldon |
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3f482c6
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The dog would run a few steps toward the house, circle once or twice as though unable to decide what to do next, then run back into the wood, turn, and run again toward the house, all the while whining with agitation, tail low and wavering. "Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ," I said. "Bloody Timmy's in the well!" I"
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Diana Gabaldon |
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cbbdbc2
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And that, ma chere madame, is all I can tell you--no more than I can tell any troubled soul who comes to me for advice: put your trust in God, and pray for guidance." He shoved the fresh pastry toward me. "But whatever you are to do, you will"
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Diana Gabaldon |
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ded5432
|
Aye, I ken fine how strong women are," he said quietly. "And you're strong enough for what must be done, m' annsachd--believe me."
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Diana Gabaldon |
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056aeb9
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To create, to hoard, to send these things, these fragile documents, down through the years, with only the hope that they would survive and reach those for whom they were intended.
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Diana Gabaldon |
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4858c0c
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It's a rare plant," he said, touching the sprig in my open hand. "Flowers, fruit and leaves all together at the one time. The white flowers are for honor, and red fruit for courage--and the green leaves are for constancy."
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Diana Gabaldon |
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1c66dd2
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massive edifice, with its impenetrable walls, its monumental gate, and its red-coated guards, I began to have doubts. "What"
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Diana Gabaldon |
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cccf95c
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that to sleep, actually sleep with someone did give this sense of intimacy, as though your dreams had flowed out of you to mingle with his and fold you both in a blanket of unconscious knowing. A
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Diana Gabaldon |
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9ea96dd
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have always kent what it is to love a man--be he husband or brother, lover or son. A dangerous business; that's what it is. Men go where they will, they do as they must; it is not a woman's part to bid them stay, nor yet to reproach them for being what they are--or for not coming back.
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Diana Gabaldon |
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793325f
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A sadist with a sense of humor was particularly dangerous.
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Diana Gabaldon |
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1448243
|
I couldn't think how long it had been since I had read a novel. And in the daytime! Feeling pleasantly wicked, I sat by the open window in my surgery and resolutely entered a world far from my own.
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Diana Gabaldon |
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2e8d6b6
|
I found myself thinking that I had always heretofore assumed that the tendency of eighteenth-century ladies to swoon was due to tight stays; now I rather thought it might be due to the idiocy of eighteenth-century men.
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Diana Gabaldon |
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7d08934
|
Would he ever come back? He wondered. The water filled his ears with its own rush, and he was comforted by the realization that, in fact, he never left.
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self-knowledge
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Diana Gabaldon |
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f5f2a7b
|
Looking down on the assembly, standing patiently in the drizzle awaiting a verdict, I suddenly had a vivid understanding of something. Like so many, I had heard, appalled, the reports that trickled out of postwar Germany; the stories of deportations and mass murder, of concentration camps and burnings. And like so many others had done, and would do, for years to come, I had asked myself, "How could the people have let it happen? They must h..
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Diana Gabaldon |
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a0e09f9
|
thought that was perhaps how some ghosts were made; where a will and a purpose had survived, heedless of the frail flesh that fell by the wayside, unable to sustain life long enough.
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Diana Gabaldon |
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d3849bc
|
Please," she said, "don't mention Jamie Fraser to my daughter."
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Diana Gabaldon |