"The Penelopiad" Quotes

Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.

I was looking for someone to admire. I wanted to be allowed to feel proud of someone. But the only people available were either unattainable or in prison.

One of the most important reasons for telling Penelope's story is that she is a stand-in for all those silenced women of the past, and for their counterparts today.

Love is a great deceiver.

It's not the husbands I'm worried about, it's the wives. The husbands will be all right. They always are. They'll tuck up their skirts and go back to the real business of life, like banking and politics and spreading the word of God.

The only way to get a man to do something is to suggest he is too old for it.

The other thing, of course, was that men were usually too stupid to recognize the really great women when they saw them.

He had the kind of face women can't help loving, no matter what they say. I've seen it before, in a painting.

There's nothing wrong with being a wife and mother. But I'm not interested in being the wife of just any man, and I refuse to be the mother of just any children.

I suspect that even the cruelest maidens have a soft spot for some pet, and the cruelest mothers may weep over a child they love.