Home > Author > Lara Elena Donnelly
1 " You've no idea what you've cost me. Not the faintest trace of an understanding. "
― Lara Elena Donnelly , Armistice (The Amberlough Dossier, #2)
2 " Daoud sighed. "You really think that he is still alive?""I know that I need to see for myself," said Aristide, staring at the white blots of cold cream on the carpet between his shoes. "Or I will live the rest of my life like a man with a toothache he cannot leave alone, and I will poke at it until it grows into an abscess, bursts, and kills me. "
3 " You know...I don't mind disappointing people. Perhaps that's a flaw in my character, but I think it has rather more to do with other people's failure to manage their own expectations. And everyone seems to have such varied expectations of me, how could I hope to fulfil them all? "
― Lara Elena Donnelly , Amnesty (The Amberlough Dossier, #3)
4 " Among the brooks and gorse and muddy stone, he let the façade fall. His own weakness broke his heart, and frightened him. "
― Lara Elena Donnelly , Amberlough (The Amberlough Dossier, #1)
5 " Well, you know what they say." "'A chipped pot still holds soup'?""I was going to go with 'one-legged whore's still got holes. "
6 " But I have a high opinion of myself, and it never fails to surprise me when others don’t feel the same. "
― Lara Elena Donnelly , Base Notes
7 " Aristide had known so many ferocious people in his life, himself included. But in the end they were all bones, barely shielded from the world and all too easy to break. "
8 " Aristide did not like grand gestures if they were also useless. A boycott that accomplished nothing wasn’t a statement; it was pathetic. "
9 " Businesses on the banks of the Heyn, where it flowed behind the theatre district, were as likely to cater to pirates as to penniless aristocrats. Wealthy courtesans mingled with starving artists. The men wore jewels and the women suits and everyone else a mixture of both. "
10 " Think of it like a dry down: to experience a perfume fully, you have to let it work through every note. "
11 " Trophy Kill was a riff on the classic fougère, the favorite accord of Victorian gentlemen. Fig and violet shifting to a base of oakmoss, musk, and mildewed leather. Dark, toothy, unexpected. Close your eyes and you could be lost at dusk in the kind of fairy-tale forest the Grimms never cleaned up. A fox hunt ending in blood. A strong stirrup cup, and shadows. A riding habit wrenched above the knee. "
12 " Scent helps us recall memories we’ve already created. "
13 " My flaw, like Jonathan’s, was an abiding passion to produce perfume that made people think. Or that bypassed the brain altogether and went straight to the gut and groin. "
14 " Scent is the strongest link to our memories. What I do just makes a deeper connection. Brain chemistry or black magic—it’s unclear. People pay a lot of money for it, though. "
15 " Giovanni put his scissor hand to his face, so the blades stuck out from his forehead like a silver horn. A unicorn: virtuous, pure, utterly unsuited to survive the guile of hunters. I spent a lot of time in the library as a child. These images stick with you. "
16 " had a strong scent memory and could conjure the atmosphere of that conference room as if producing it from a filing cabinet and spreading it across my kitchen table. Freon, dust, hot plastic, paper. Corporate office accord. The egg salad, sulfurous with a sharp note of sweet vinegar for the emerald studs of relish. The barest hint of stale tobacco. Whisky breath, which was peat, fermented sugars, rotten meat. The smallest trace of orris root and musky jasmine for the whisper of sex "
17 " this was promising evidence that my theory about implanting memories via scent and suggestion was viable—that with a story to tie the elements together, a perfume could create something stronger than mere association. "
18 " At this point I pulled my phone away from my face and checked the time; you’re not supposed to be able to read clocks if you’re dreaming. Seven oh three. This was real life, and I was going to have to deal with it. "
19 " Tiny boutiques purveying raw chocolate and pink sea salt. Coffee shops where they inexplicably sold high-end Scandinavian hand cream. "
20 " A perfume without base notes has no staying power. If she wanted the beauty, she would have to take the filth as well. And Jane . . . I believed that Jane could learn to love it. "
