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41 " Only a very few people leave traces in history, or even bequeath family documents to their descendants. Most have no money to memorialise themselves, and lack even a gravestone to mark their existence. Women's lives, in particular, remain largely unrecorded. But even so, did they not shape the future? "
― Helen Dunmore , Birdcage Walk
42 " I did not know what breath meant until she died. It was everything that gave me quickness and life: it was thought, feeling, animation. Without it there was nothing. "
43 " It seemed to me that there was a self-interest hidden in the core of all of us, which cooled us when we contemplated any fate which did not touch us directly. "
44 " I suppose it's easier to kill people if you can pretend to yourself that they're not really people at all. "
― Helen Dunmore , The Crossing of Ingo
45 " It was something he'd learned in the war: only think about what is directly in front of you. ... plan ahead all the time... but (don't ) feel ahead. "
― Helen Dunmore , Exposure
46 " Go back to your house then, and see what happiness you find there.’ ‘It has nothing to do with happiness.’ ‘It is true that marriage seems often to have little to do with happiness. But who am I to judge? I have never been married. "
47 " Is my mind closed? No. It’s wide open. I’m always waiting. "
― Helen Dunmore , The Tide Knot
48 " Fear of this order is not an emotion. It is like a virus overwhelming every cell of his body, while his mind struggles to remain clear. "
― Helen Dunmore , The Betrayal (The Siege #2)
49 " They had something, that generation, he thought. They didn't doubt themselves. They knew what life was, and where they belonged in it. Not like us. "
― Helen Dunmore , House of Orphans
50 " A trouble shared is a trouble halved. "
51 " she would have to tell the story of this afternoon to herself over and over until she could make a different shape from it to comfort herself. "
― Helen Dunmore , A Spell of Winter
52 " ... she supposed that once it had all made sense, when it was whole. It annoyed her, the way things got broken up so that they couldn't fit together properly any more. "
― Helen Dunmore , The Greatcoat
53 " that omelettes couldn’t be made without breaking eggs. Sacrifice "
54 " How's your love-life Ulli?Ulli pictures here love-life as an elusive but rapacious animal which nobody else has ever seen. This is why they keep asking after it. "
― Helen Dunmore , Love Of Fat Men
55 " Who would think that water could grind a rock to sand, or wear away a cliff, unless they'd seen it with their own eyes? Never say never, little sister. Who can tell what the future will bring? "
― Helen Dunmore , The Deep
56 " skate across the icy sea of oilcloth between me and the bookcase. I kneel up in bed and put on Rob’s coat. Its thick, stiff wool is becoming supple again from the heat of my body night after night. I put the sleeve to my face and "
57 " Our houses are palaces to those who have none. "
58 " These two would never understand each other. I was the only link between them and each of them tugged on it hard in the hope that the other would let go. "
59 " To be lost from people’s thoughts is like a second death. "
― Helen Dunmore
60 " No one makes a better enemy than a man who has had to beg for your help. "