110+ Melina Marchetta Quotes On Jellicoe Road, Realistic And Emotional

Melina Marchetta is an Australian writer of young adult fiction. She is best known for her novel, Looking for Alibrandi, which won the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award in 1993. She has written several other novels, including Saving Francesca, On the Jellicoe Road, and Finnikin of the Rock. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Melina Marchetta on leadership, life, love.

Top 10 Melina Marchetta Quotes

1. What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?" "Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand.
2. What do you want from me?" he asks. What I want from every person in my life, I want to tell him. More.
3. Hold my hand because I might disappear.
4. But grief makes a monster out of us sometimes . . . and sometimes you say and do things to the people you love that you can't forgive yourself for.
5. No," I say, looking up at Griggs. "It's actually because my heart belongs to someone else." And if I could bottle the look on his face, I'd keep it by my bedside for the rest of my life.
6. Do you think people have noticed that I'm around?" "I notice when you're not. Does that count?
7. The truth doesn't set you free, you know. It makes you feel awkward and embarrassed and defenseless and red in the face and horrified and petrified and vulnerable.
8. I think if I'm ever asked to recall what Year 12 was all about, I'll remember it as one big cappuccino experience.
9. It's like you have a plan and someone comes along and makes you want to change it all, but you still like your first plan, no matter how fantastic the second one makes you feel.
10. Maybe memories should be left the way they are.

Melina Marchetta Short Quotes

• Do something that scares you everyday.
• You go shake your foundations, Will. I think it's about time I saved myself.
• Left alone with the dial tone...excuse me, operator, why is no one listening?
• Our spirit is mightier than the filth of our memories.
• Comfort zones are overrated. They make you lazy.
• Promise me you'll never stop dreaming.
• City people. They may know how to street fight but they don't know how to wade through manure.
• Whatever is now covered up will be uncovered and every secret will be made known.
• ...the greatest weapon against big stupid men was a sharp mind.
• You're going to set us all on fire, you homicidal feral fruitcake.

Melina Marchetta Quotes About Life

And life goes on, which seems kind of strange and cruel when you're watching someone die. — Melina Marchetta

When it was over, she gathered him in her arms. And told him the terrible irony of her life. That she had wanted to be dead all those years while her brother had been alive. That had been her sin. And this was her penance. Wanting to live when everyone else seemed dead. — Melina Marchetta

And suddenly I know I have to go. But this time without being chased by the Brigadier, without experiencing the kindness of a postman from Yass, and without taking along a Cadet who will change the way I breath for the rest of my life. — Melina Marchetta

Sometimes I feel like a junkie. One minute something happens in my life and I'm flying. Next minute I take a nose-dive and just as I'm about to hit the ground with full force something else will have me flying again. — Melina Marchetta

I've been passionate about two things in my life. One was Christina Alibrandi. The other is Josephine Alibrandi. — Melina Marchetta

I don't despise you for what you allowed to happen to me. I despise you because when I was released, you refused to be found and I needed you more than anything in my life. Not to mend my broken bones, Arjuro. I needed my brother to mend my broken spirit. — Melina Marchetta

Just say up on the hill is the meaning of life and someone knew it and they wanted everyone else to enjoy it. So they put a red vinyl sofa up there. — Melina Marchetta

What if she's all I give you in this life of ours, my love?" she asked quietly. "Then I'll shout at the goddess in fury," he said fiercely. "I'll beg to know why I've been given so much when other men have so little. — Melina Marchetta

When a woman has not received much flattery in her life, she will be seduced. — Melina Marchetta

you grab at any sign of hope. You grab it with both hands and breathe life into it, day after day. You do anything to keep it alive. — Melina Marchetta

Melina Marchetta Quotes About Love

It's funny how you can forget everything except people loving you. Maybe that's why humans find it so hard getting over love affairs. It's not the pain they're getting over, it's the love. — Melina Marchetta

About my first memory, sitting on the shoulders of a giant who I know can only be my father. Of touching the sky. Of lying between two people who read me stories of wild things and journeys with dragons, the soft hum of their voices speaking of love and serenity. See, I remember love. — Melina Marchetta

Do you love me?’ he asked instead. ‘Because if you don’t, I’d wait until you did. I’d wait weeks and months and years. — Melina Marchetta

I love it when you're demented like this. — Melina Marchetta

I think I'm a bit in love with these girls. They make me feel giddy. Like I haven't a care in the world. Like I'm fearless. Like I used to be. — Melina Marchetta

Josie, life is not a Mills and Boon book. People fall out of love. People disappoint other people and they find it very hard to forgive. — Melina Marchetta

Love’s easy. It kind of comes with the territory. But liking is another story. — Melina Marchetta

This isn't romance. This isn't a declaration of love or affirmation of friendship. This is something more. — Melina Marchetta

Don't believe in God. Love the world just the way it is. — Melina Marchetta

I shrug. "I'll probably mention that I'm in love with you." He chuckles. "Only you would say that in such a I-think-I'll-wash-my-hair-tonight tone. — Melina Marchetta

Melina Marchetta Quotes About Jellicoe Road

Someone asked us later, "Didn't you wonder why no one came across you sooner?" Did I wonder? When you see your parents zipped up in black body bags on the Jellicoe Road like they're some kind of garbage, don't you know? Wonder dies. — Melina Marchetta

So, like I asked, what’s with the nightie?” “It smells like what I always think mothers smell like,” I tell him honestly, knowing I don’t have to explain. He nods. “My mum has one just the same and you have no idea how disturbing it is that it’s turning me on. — Melina Marchetta

My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die. — Melina Marchetta

He nods. "My mum has one just the same and you have no idea how disturbing it is that it's turning me on. — Melina Marchetta

Because being part of him isn't just anything. It's kind of everything. — Melina Marchetta

What are you so sad about? We're going to know him for the rest of our lives. — Melina Marchetta

I live on the Jellicoe Road. Where trees make canopies over-head and where you can sit at the top of them and see forever. — Melina Marchetta

If you weren't driving, I'd kiss you senseless," I tell him. He swerves to the side of the road and stops the car abruptly. "Not driving any more. — Melina Marchetta

How can you just forget a person completely until the moment you see his face again? — Melina Marchetta

So why would I want someone to be my everything when one day they might not be around?" Jellicoe Road — Melina Marchetta

Melina Marchetta Famous Quotes And Sayings

Taylor Markham," said Raffaela, "I'm going to say a prayer for you." And although I wanted to mock her and explain I didn't believe in anything or anyone, I realised that no one had ever prayed for me before. So I let her. — Melina Marchetta

The next night he asked Jonah if he could take $9.49 out of Jonah's secret stash that only Danny and his mum and Jack knew about. Jonah kept it in his sock drawer next to a photograph of Jonah and a girl with sad eyes, taken in one of those railway station photo booths. — Melina Marchetta

This is the best night of my life," Raffy says, crying. "Raffy, half our House has burnt down," I say wearily. "We don't have a kitchen." "Why do you always have to be so pessimistic?" she asks. "We can double up in our rooms and have a barbecue every night like the Cadets." Silently I vow to keep Raffy around for the rest of my life. — Melina Marchetta

When I turn around, he cups my face in his hands and he kisses me so deeply that I don't know who is breathing for who, but his mouth and tongue taste like warm honey. I don't know how long it lasts, but when I let go of him, I miss it already. — Melina Marchetta

Do you want to hang out? At your place or something?" Hanging out with Jimmy Hailler will mean that I have to say hello to him every day. I'm not ready to say hello to him every day. Too much commitment. It's bad enough that I'm sharing chocolate brownies swith him. I shake my head. "Not today. — Melina Marchetta

These people have history and I crave history. I crave someone knowing me so well that they can tell what I'm thinking. Jonah Griggs takes my hand under the table and links my fingers with his and I know that I would sacrifice almost anything just to keep this state of mind, for the rest of the week at least. — Melina Marchetta

The string slices into the skin of his fingers and no matter how tough the calluses, it tears. But this beat is fast and even though his joints are aching, his arm's out of control like it has a mind of its own and the sweat tat drenches his hair and face seems to smother him, but nothing's going to stop Tom. He;s aiming for oblivion. — Melina Marchetta

But you're almost eighteen. You're old enough. Everyone else is doing it. And next year someone is going to say to someone else 'but you're only sixteen, everyone else is doing it' Or one day someone will tell your daughter that she's only thirteen and everyone else is doing it. I don't want to do it because everyone else is doing it. — Melina Marchetta

I need voices of reason and of hysteria and of empathy. I need to have an Alanis moment. I need advice from Elizabeth Bennett. I need Tim Tams and comfort food. — Melina Marchetta

He bursts out laughing. It's short, as if he regretted allowing me to make him laugh, but the satisfaction's already mine. — Melina Marchetta

Oh, you've outdone me twice now, you queen of forgiveness. The ring's a promise of peace and I'm greedy with hope. It's a song that we sing in a tongue that we share. And though you say it's a gift from a king to a king, I say it's a sign from a queen to a queen. — Melina Marchetta

The idea that God works in mysterious ways is rubbish. There’s nothing mysterious about his ways. They’re premeditated and slightly conniving, and they place you in an impossible situation. — Melina Marchetta

I'm sorry," he says, "for that time I kissed you at that party and for that time at the wedding and more than anything for the thousand times that I wanted to and didn't have the guts to. — Melina Marchetta

Where did this come from? Do you know what this is? Luca is going to sneak out of bed in the middle of the night and squirt it on his tongue. It's like drugs for ten-year-olds. Today it's Ice Magic. Tomorrow, heroin. — Melina Marchetta

Phaedra shook her head. “If your people mean no offense, they should not speak their thoughts out loud in front of their children, Tesadora. Because it will be their children who come to slaughter us one day, all because of careless words passed down by their elders who meant no harm. — Melina Marchetta

We pass more women with swollen bellies hurrying towards the godshouse and Arjuro presses a kiss to Tariq's outstretched fingers. 'She's mocking me, runt of our litter,' Arjuro tells him. 'The Oracle is mocking me for choosing a man to share my bed. And her punishment is that I spend the rest of eternity staring between the legs of women. — Melina Marchetta

Back in Georgie's attic, he yanks the phone out of the socket and begins scrolling down the names under dialed calls, praying to anyone who will listen. God. Baby Jesus. Saint Thomas the doubter. Saint Whoever, patron saint of losers. Praying, Please, please, don't let it be true. The first name shatters him. The second makes his head spin. — Melina Marchetta

For reasons he couldn’t understand a sadness came over him and it was then he saw the girl standing on the other side of the dirt road, her eyes pools of absolute sorrow, her light brown hair glowing in the splinters of sunlight that forced their way through the trees. — Melina Marchetta

You know something,Jacob, I'd hate to be as smart as Jonh. I mean he was really, really smart, and to be that smart means you know all the answers, and when you know all the answers there's no room for dreaming. — Melina Marchetta

We approach the house and I wave at Jimmy. "And if he thinks he's eating with us, he's got another thing coming," my dad says. Jimmy approaches us and takes the shopping bags from me, looking inside them. "Lamb roast. Am I invited? — Melina Marchetta

Is your queen what you are searching for in a woman, Froi?" "I never imagined I was looking for something in a woman. But if I did, I'd have to judge her by the way I felt laying beside her before I went to sleep at night and how I felt in the morning waking up to her." "Oh, too profound, my friend. Much too profound. — Melina Marchetta

I’m frightened that one morning there will not be enough to keep me going. — Melina Marchetta

What happens when she's not my memory anymore? What happens when she's not around to tell me about his belt leaving scars across my two-year-old brother's face or when he whacked her so hard that she lost her hearing for a week? Who'll be my memory?" Santangelo doesn't miss a beat. "I will. Ring me." "Same," Raffy says. I look at him. I can't even speak because if I do I know I'll cry but I smile and he knows what I'm thinking. — Melina Marchetta

If something happened to me, whose face will be on the front page of the paper begging for me? Is a person worth more because they have someone to grieve for them? — Melina Marchetta

I look over to the other side of the road and watch Griggs as he walks. It’s a lazy walk but so full of confidence that you want to be standing behind him all the way. — Melina Marchetta

Someone had to be blamed. Someone had to die. (...) What you can't understand, you destroy. — Melina Marchetta

No. But it's like the argument `don't donate to third-world countries because the money mightn't get to them.' People only say that because it makes them feel better about the fact that they do nothing. — Melina Marchetta

As I walk back to the school on my own, I realise I'm crying. So I go back to the stories I've read about the five and I try to make sense of their lives because in making sense of theirs, I may understand mine. — Melina Marchetta

Balthazar pledged to die defending his royal house of Lumuatere. Finnikin swore to be their protector and guide for as long as he lived. Lucian vowed he would be the light whom they traveled toward in times of need. — Melina Marchetta

Hannah, do you think that your mum and dad and Tate's mum and dad and my mum and dad and Webb and Tate are all together someplace?' she asks earnestly. I look at Hannah, waiting for the answer. And then she smiles. Webb once said that a Narnie smile was a revelation and, at this moment, I need a revelation. And I get one. 'I wonder,' Hannah says. — Melina Marchetta

Women are elephants and watch the way you say that in front of them because they'll think you're calling them fat and there's no coming back from that moment. But they hoard. They say they don't, but they do. We think that if something's not spoken about again, it goes away. It doesn't. Nothing goes away just like that. — Melina Marchetta

You can know someone all your life, like your parents or family, but I’ll tell you this, Ned. There’s an expression on their face, or a tone in their voice, or a way they walk, that you’ve never ever seen before. Like they’ve kept it hidden. Until their brother dies. Or their son. I remember those days and they were like these strangers and I wanted to say, Who are you people? — Melina Marchetta

Your problems are out there. But they're small. They only grow out of proportion when they climb inside your head. — Melina Marchetta

Because photos are testimony that someone did live. A reminder of past we may have loved or hated. A piece of our lives. — Melina Marchetta

Teresa, Teresa. Have we taught you nothing?" Raffy says in an irritated voice. "It's war. You go in and you hunt him down until he realises that he's made a mistake. — Melina Marchetta

I look around for the counter that sells my scent, but I'm so petrified that if I spray it in the air, nothing will come out. And then Mia's scent seems to fade away and everything else fades away with it and I know that all I have to do to recapture it is press the spray button again. — Melina Marchetta

Just ask how I'm feeling, I want to say. Just ask and I may tell you. But no one does. — Melina Marchetta

A very underestimated part of the world, The Entrance is. — Melina Marchetta

Mama says that satisfaction isn't what I should search for. Respect is. Respect? I detest that word. Probably because in this world you have to respect the wrong people for the wrong reasons. — Melina Marchetta

I’m scared I’m going to spend the rest of my life in a state of yearning, regardless of where I am. — Melina Marchetta

It's how they've stayed popular for so long. By not doing anything that will make them look like fools. They never leave home without their safety nets and I think, good for them, but the thing with safety nets is this. I got tangled in them so many times and the Stella girls always seemed to leave me dangling, upside down, to the point where I almost couldn't breathe anymore. — Melina Marchetta

Sheep. Looting. Cousins." Lucien cursed and got out of bed. — Melina Marchetta

I used to tell your mother she looked like Sophia Lauren." He looks at me, frowning, and then it registers. "Oh God, some guy's using that line on you, isn't he?" "Not just 'some guy'." I tell him. "The guy. — Melina Marchetta

For a moment I can't help thinking how decent he is - that there's some hope for him beyond the obnoxious image he displays. Maybe deep down he is a sensitive guy, who sees us as real people with real issues. I want to say something nice. Some kind of thanks. I stand there, rehearsing it in my mind. "Oh my God," he says, "did you see that girl's tits?" Maybe not today. — Melina Marchetta

How unladylike of you to mention such a thing. — Melina Marchetta

You're judging her by her literacy," Tara says. "You're a literacist." "You've made that up. — Melina Marchetta

I can't wait to tell him one day," she says with a giggle. "'Hey, Chaz, guess what? We knew where your precious car was all the time.' I'd like to take a photo of his face. What do you think?" "I reckon I'd smile really nicely in the photo," Santangelo says behind me, yanking me out of the way, "knowing that you'll be keeping it under your pillow for the rest of your life. — Melina Marchetta

Phaedra of Alonso’s death was a never-ending pain that gnawed at his insides. It made him a prisoner in his own cottage. — Melina Marchetta

You've been quiet these past days," Trevanion said. "Are you going to tell me what the...exchange of words was about?" "Who said there was an exchange of words?" Finnikin asked with irritation. "When a woman says 'I hope you fall under your horse' and 'catch your death, then see if I grieve you,'" Perri said, "then there's been an exchange of words." Finnikin glared at him. "In my humble opinion. — Melina Marchetta

Causing a riot is what I do best. — Melina Marchetta

How seven days had passed since she had disappeared from existence. That it would take the eyes of the gods to find her. Or the heart of the Lumateran exile. — Melina Marchetta

She's tired and leans her head on his shoulder, which is the resting place for all their heads, but when Justine and Siobhan and Francesca use his body so shamelessly he doesn't feel the need to turn his head and press his mouth against their hair. — Melina Marchetta

People aren’t interested in the truth, Dafar. They’re interested in what keeps them safe. They’re interested in being looked after. They’re interested in a tale being spun... Mighty men have moments of great despair that common people do not want to know about. — Melina Marchetta

then she was laughing. They both were, and the savage teeth were the most joyous sight Phaedra had seen for a long time. It was as if they were dancing. There it was. Suddenly the strangeness of Quintana of Charyn's face made sense. Because it was a face meant for laughing, but it had never been given a chance. — Melina Marchetta

In a kinder world," he whispered, "one I promise you I've seen, men and women flirt and dance and love with only the fear of what it would mean without the other in their lives. — Melina Marchetta

It is what a man does for strangers that counts more than what he does for his family. — Melina Marchetta

The gods do make playthings of us ... but it is we mortals who provide them with the tools. — Melina Marchetta

It's a weird smile, but it reaches his eyes and I bottle it. And I put it in my ammo pack that's kept right next to my soul and Justine's spirit and Siobhan's hope and Tara's passions. Because if I'm going to wake up one morning and not be able to get out of bed, I'm going to need everything I've got to fight this disease that could be sleeping inside of me. — Melina Marchetta

People with lost personalities will suffer a great deal more than those with lost virginities. — Melina Marchetta

You said to me once that you weren’t what I dreamed of. You were right. You surpass everything I dreamed of. Even the rot in you that’s caused you to do shameful things. Some men let the rot and guilt fester into something ugly beyond words. Few men can turn it into worth and substance. If you’re gods’ blessed for no other reason, it’s for that. — Melina Marchetta

You list the dead. You tell the stories of the past. You write about the catastrophes and the massacres. What about the living, Finnikin? Who honors them? — Melina Marchetta

It's my birthday today. I'm not 17 anymore. The 17 Janis Ian sang about where one learns the truth. But what she failed to mention is that you keep on learning truths after 17 and I want to keep on learning truths till the day I die. — Melina Marchetta

The head nerd of the Cadets is my partner and when it's over he asks me for my number. I'm very flattered and he looks a bit crestfallen when I say no. "It's because they don't have coverage out here," Griggs tells him. "No," I say, looking up at Griggs. "It's actually because my heart belongs to someone else." And if I could bottle the look on his face, I'd keep it by my bedside for the rest of my life. — Melina Marchetta

Some of us weren't born for rewards, Froi. We were born for sacrifices. — Melina Marchetta

Men don't rape women because their women are ugly," cousin Jostien said, but there was a protest at his words. "That's what my fa said! He says that inside their hearts and spirits they are nothing but little men who need to feel powerful. — Melina Marchetta

I wish everyone would stop crying, Tom. Uncle Joe would be so angry about it." But she's crying herself now. "He'd be so angry at us, Tom, for crying so much when all he did was laugh. — Melina Marchetta

This is what I know. I look like my father. My father disappeared when he was seventeen years old. Hannah once told me that there is something unnatural about being older than your father ever got to be. When you can say that at the age of seventeen, it's a different kind of devastating. — Melina Marchetta

Sometimes you look at me and it's like all the bullshit gets stripped off and I'm left with what's underneath and I kind of like what I see. Someone who actually fails. Someone who has absolutely no self-control. Someone who says real dickhead things like 'this is complicated.' I like that part of me, you know. I like the fact that I know I can't control you or how I feel about you and that doesn't freak me out. — Melina Marchetta

Life Lessons by Melina Marchetta

1. Melina Marchetta's work teaches us that we can overcome our struggles and find strength in our relationships with others.
2. Her stories emphasize the importance of family, friendship, and community in helping us to grow and develop.
3. Through her characters, Marchetta shows us that we can learn to accept ourselves and our flaws, and that we can find joy and beauty in our lives.