4
" honest reaction to lust. Instead, it had to be written in the stars, an embracing of fate, a headlong rush into what seemed so extraordinary that it obliterated any memory of having been at this place once or twice or three times before. This was truly a case of I’ve-never-felt-like-this-before. Everything preceding it in one’s life had been mere dress rehearsal for This Big Moment. It was incontestably real. Because of that, one could not bear to eliminate a single item that, looked upon, fired up the senses once again, reassuring oneself that, yes, it was decidedly real this time, and one was finally alive in ways that all previous finally alives were rendered meaningless. "
― Elizabeth George ,
9
" People say, ‘We’re ending this,’ and they set off on a crusade,” Philippa Weatherall said. “They believe that they can stop the tide. But they can’t. No one can. This thing that some of them still do to girls . . . ? It’s a remnant of their culture and that’s how it’s defended. Well-meaning individuals, the law, courts . . . nothing stops it. Do you know where we are with this now, today, here, at this point in time, Detective Lynley? Mostly it’s done in infancy now, only occasionally is it still done to a prepubescent girl. An infant can’t speak, she can’t report what’s happened or what’s being threatened. She can’t tell a schoolteacher, the police, anyone. She’s pre-verbal and pre-memory. What I’m saying to you is that the entire ugly business of cutting girls has been driven deeply underground. "
― Elizabeth George ,