Quotes By Author: Diana Gabaldon

“Hell was full of clocks, he was sure of it. There was no torment, after all, that could not be exacerbated by a contemplation of time passing. The large case clock at the end of the corridor had a particularly penetrating tick-tock, audiable above and through all the noises of the house. It seemed to Lord John Grey to echo his own heartbeats, each one a step on the road towards death.”

“No. Ye loved him. I canna hold it against either of you that ye mourn him. And it gives me some comfort to know …” He hesitated, and I reached up to smooth the rumpled hair off his face.”To know what?””That should the need come, you might mourn for me that way,” he said softly.”

“I want to take ye to bed. In my bed. And I mean to spend the rest of the day thinking what to do wit ye once I got ye there. So wee Archie can just go and play at marbles with his bollucks, aye?”

“It would ha’ been a good deal easier, if ye’d only been a witch.”

“That dog is a wolf, is he not?”Aye, well, mostly.’A small flash of hazel told him not to quibble.’And yet he is thy boon companion, a creature of rare courage and affection, and altogether a worthy being?;’Oh, aye,’ he said with more confidence. ‘He is.”She gave him an even look.’Thee is a wolf, too, and I know it. But thee is my wolf, and best thee know that.’He’d started to burn when she spoke, an ignition swift and fierce as the lighting of one of his cousin’s matches. He put out his hand, palm forward, to her, still cautious lest she too, burst into flame.’What I said to ye, before . . . that I kent ye loved me-‘She stepped forward and pressed her palm to his, her small, cool fingers linking tight.’What I say to thee now is that I do love thee. And if thee hunts at night, thee will come home.’Under the sycamore, the dog yawned and laid his muzzle on his paws.’And sleep at they feet,’ Ian whispered, and gathered her in with his one good arm, both of them blazing bright as day.”

“But I talk to you as I talk to my own soul,” he said, turning me to face him. He reached up and cupped my cheek, fingers light on my temple.”And, Sassenach,” he whispered, “your face is my heart.”

“Gentle he would be, denied he would not.”

“And I mean to hear ye groan like that again. And to moan and sob, even though you dinna wish to, for ye canna help it. I mean to make you sigh as though your heart would break, and scream with the wanting, and at last to cry out in my arms, and I shall know that I’ve served ye well.”

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

“I stood still, vision blurring, and in that moment, I heard my heart break. It was a small, clean sound, like the snapping of a flower’s stem.”

“It wasn’t a thing I had consciously missed, but having it now reminded me of the joy of it; that drowsy intimacy in which a man’s body is accessible to you as your own, the strange shapes and textures of it like a sudden extension of your own limbs.”

“When I asked my da how ye knew which was the right woman, he told me when the time came, I’d have no doubt. And I didn’t. When I woke in the dark under that tree on the road to Leoch, with you sitting on my chest, cursing me for bleeding to death, I said to myself ‘Jamie Fraser, for all ye canna see what she looks like, and for all she weights as much as a good draft horse, this is the woman.”

“Ye are Blood of my Blood, and Bone of my Bone,I give ye my Body, that we Two might be One.I give ye my Spirit, ’til our Life shall be Done.”

“I will find you,” he whispered in my ear. “I promise. If I must endure two hundred years of purgatory, two hundred years without you – then that is my punishment, which I have earned for my crimes. For I have lied, and killed, and stolen; betrayed and broken trust. But there is the one thing that shall lie in the balance. When I shall stand before God, I shall have one thing to say, to weigh against the rest.”His voice dropped, nearly to a whisper, and his arms tightened around me.Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, and God! I loved her well.”

“For where all love is, the speaking is unnecessary”