Diana Gabaldon Quotes

I may be out of bed, but I'm in no way equipped to conduct hypothetical conversations before I've had a cup of tea.

Every legend has one foot on the truth.

She hesitated for a long moment, but then nodded quickly, as though afraid she would regret the action if she paused to think about it longer.

A man's life had to have more purpose than only to feed himself each day.

I mean to take my time about it, aye?

But for the hours of the night, I was helpless; powerless to move as a dragonfly in amber.

To take responsibility for the welfare of others made me feel less victimized by the whims of whatever impossible fate had brought me here,

Any piece of good music is in essence a love song.

In bed," she said calmly. "I want you to come to bed with me.

Well, and he supposed a duel with a drunken midget was as good a test as any.

Idleness would have seemed not only a sign of moral decay, but an affront to the natural order of things.

Tent for a day and a night. The tent shook and heaved, and voices

Do you know where Laoghaire is?

A good marriage is one of the most precious gifts from God,

How was yer first time, Jamie? Did ye bleed? shouted Rupert

Robbie," Jamie assured him. "What's to do, then?" McGillivray, who

Arisaid. A night breeze brushed a strand of hair across my face.

Fighting was an exhausting business, and so was fear.

You're the world I have," she murmured, and then her breathing changed, and she took him down with her into safety.

I'll be setting off just after the Angelus bell- at noon, I mean - should that suit your honors.

Ye werena the first lass I kissed," he said softly. "But I swear you'll be the last.

Women are never too old to wear pink," Fergus replied firmly. "I have heard les mesdames say so, many times.

Strength of bone and fire of mind, all wrapped around a core of steel-hard purpose that would make him a deadly projectile, once set on any course.

I am a sassenach, after all," I said, seeing it. He touched my face briefly with a rueful smile. "Aye, mo duinne. But you're my sassenach.

Come to think, perhaps being nearly killed wasn't always a misfortune-so long as you didn't actually die of it.

Go down," she said, "and tell them the MacKenzies are here.

I waved pleasantly after him, thinking how much I should enjoy sticking a fork into him, when the time came.

Come on!" he said, grunting as he shifted the Chinaman's slippery form for a better grip. "They'll be after us any moment!

Chin - and there it was. I near beshit myself.

I stood in front of him in nothing but my shoes and gartered rose-silk stockings.

TWO DOWN," Roger whispered.

Jamie ... I only want to be where you are. Nothing else.

Exposure to a two-year-old boy was probably the best possible object lesson in the dangers of motherhood,

of a musket ball embedded in his

I asked. I was quiet then, letting him come to terms with it.

If," I said through my teeth, "you ever raise a hand to me again, James Fraser, I'll cut out your heart and fry it for breakfast!

I can bear pain myself, he said softly, but I couldna bear yours. That would take more strength than I have.

Aye, verra good. Now then, if ye'll just put your hands above your head and seize the bedstead -

He wiped the sweat from his face on his sleeve, squared his shoulders, and strode back into the fray. All there was to do was his duty.

Dinna fash yourself, Sassenach. Ye canna say more than ye know, but tell me it all, just once more.

And if your life is a suitable exchange for my honor, why is my honor not a suitable exchange for your life?

My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

Scots have long memories, and they're not the most forgiving of people.

It is easier to kill someone to save your own life than it is to hurt someone to save theirs.

The small, homely scar of a smallpox vaccination. Rain

Conflict and character are the heart of good fiction, and good mystery has both of those in spades.

The world and each day in it is a gift, mo chridhe - no matter what tomorrow may be.

are like sherry in crystal, and

For God's sake, be careful, Sassenach!" he muttered. "Dinna go near those things!

It's a wise man who kens the limits of his knowledge, Ian.

There's nay shame to ha' fallen in battle, mo caraidh," he said softly. "The greatest of warriors may be overcome.

Dialogue doesn't take place in a vacuum. Dialogue is contradictory, in that it can either speed up or slow down a passage.

Drunk wi' power," he remarked disapprovingly to the ceiling. "Verra unwomanly attitude, that.

No man is really at his best with someone else's hand up his arse.

Claire. The name knifed across his heart with a pain that was more racking than anything his body had ever been called on to withstand.

He has cat blood, I reflected sourly, no doubt that was how he managed to sneak up on me in the darkness.

He stood for a moment, bereavement a sudden, small tear in his soul.

Sometimes a shadow rises, and death lies nameless in the dark.

the medical way for a two-month voyage.

Christ, was he going to die in public, in a pleasure garden, in the company of a sodomite spy dressed like a rooster?

The greatest burden lies in caring for those we cannot help.

That Cherry Bounce must be good stuff.

Oh, Lord!" This must be what it's like to make love in Hell," he whispered. "With a burning she-devil.

But bees that hae honey in their mouths hae stings in their tails, aye?' He

Men would eat horse droppings, if ye served them wi' butter.

The curious alchemy of cookery, that process of making the transfer of life from one being to another palatable.

And I have wondered often, was I master in my soul, or did I become the slave of my own blade?

Twenty-four years ago today, I married ye, Sassenach," he said softly. "I hope ye willna have cause yet to regret it.

Oh, aye, Sassenach. I am your master ... and you're mine. Seems I canna possess your soul without losing my own.

Also was remembering the baronet who might have been his father. He reached

Just as my grandmother taught me, and her grandmother before her.

It was what you did when someone died; turned toward God and at least acknowledge the fact.

Not a hothouse flower, this daughter of Leoch, despite her surroundings.

Some nights, he even slept.

Money might not buy happiness, I reflected, but it was a useful commodity, nonetheless.

A fine coaching inn there - though not much else. Dougal looked surprised

Freedom and Whisky gang tegither.

His traitorous, deprived anatomy didn't care a whit that she was a selfish, blackmailing little bitch.

Reputation depended often on the smallest of actions, the daily decisions made with honor and responsibility, not the huge drama of heroic battles.

I loved Frank ... I loved him alot. But by that time, Jamie was my heart and the breath of my body. I couldn't leave him. I couldn't.

After all, who's going to look after all the sick folk, if your grannie's lying about in pieces?" F

Me. The cloud cover had parted for a moment and the light touched the

Appealing than truth and rationality. The words

You're real, he whispered. I had thought him pale already. Now all vestiges of color drained from his face.

There's no place on earth with more of the old superstitions and magic mixed into its daily life than the Scottish Highlands.

So remember it, lad. If your head thinks up mischief, your backside's going to pay for it. Brian Fraser to young Jamie

Come to bed, a nighean. Nothing hurts when ye love me. He was right; nothing did.

Here's tae us. Wha's like us?" "Damned few," she replied in broad Scots, "and they're all deid.

If I die," he whispered in the dark, "dinna follow me. The bairns will need ye. Stay for them. I can wait.

I canna look at ye asleep without wanting to wake ye, Sassenach." His hand cupped my breast, gently now. "I suppose I find myself lonely without ye.

But, like many ideas, that one was more appealing in concept than in execution

came a day when the food

Is it usual, what it is between us when I touch you?

I work on multiple projects at a time because it keeps me from getting writer's block.

Restlessly, I moved around the surgery, picking things up and putting them down again.

Boldness in battle is nothing out of the way ... but to face down fear in cold blood is rare in any man.

A file of red-coated soldiers came at the quick-march from the other end of the quay, splitting the crowd like vinegar dropped on mayonnaise.

Quite suddenly she understood the impulse that caused men to engage in casual blasphemy.

What are you doing with the child?" I inquired cautiously.
"I'm teachin' young James here the fine art of not pissing on his feet," he explained.

got up. She couldn't lie in bed mourning what was lost; it was no