The
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
QUOTES FOR DISCUSSION
Pg. 10 (Juliet)
Pg. 10 (Juliet)
I
had two copies and a dire need of shelf-room, but I felt like a traitor selling
it. You have soothed my conscience.
Pg.
15 (Juliet)
I love seeing the bookshops and meeting the booksellers -
booksellers are a special breed.
Pg. 16 (Juliet)
It was amazing to me then, and still is, that so many people who
wander into bookshops don't really know what they are after - they only want to
look around and hope to see a book that will strike their fancy. And then being
bright enough not to trust the publisher's blurb, they will ask the book clerc
the three questions: 1) What is it about? 2) Have you read it? 3) Was it any
good?
Pg. 16 (Juliet)
If they read it and despise it, they'll never come back. But if
they like it, they're customers for life.
Pg. 16 (Juliet)
-a publisher should send not just one reader's copy to a
bookshop, but several, so that all the staff can read it, too.
Pg. 24 (Juliet)
I thought I was in love (that's the pathetic part - my idea of
being in love).
Pg. 24 (Juliet)
In preparation for sharing my home with a husband, I made room
for him...I cleared out half my dresser drawers, half my closet, half my
medicine chest, half my desk.
Pg. 24 (Juliet)
On the afternoon before our wedding, Rob was moving in... I tore
home to find Rob sitting on a low stool in front of my book case, surrounded by
cartons. He was sealing up the last one with gummed tape and string. There were
eight boxes -eight boxes of my books bound up and ready for the basement! He
looked up...nodded toward my bookshelves and said, "Don't they look
wonderful?" Well, there are no words! I was too appalled to speak... All I
could do was scream, "How dare you! What have you DONE?! Put my books
back!"
Pg. 25 (Juliet)
Well, that's how matters started.
Pg. 25 (Juliet)
He huffed and puffed and snorted - and left. And I unpacked my
books.
Pg. 26 (Juliet)
-there are no words to express how much I needed to see a
friendly face just then. I honestly was on the verge of stealing away to the
Shetlands to take up the life of a hermit. It was beautiful of you to come.
Pg. 28 (Dawsey)
After six months of turnips and a lump of gristle now and then,
I was hard put to think about anything but a fine, full meal.
Pg. 28 (Dawsey)
Come quick, it said. And bring a butcher knife. I tried not to
get my hopes high - but I set out for the manor house at a great clip. And it
was true! She had a pig, a hidden pig, and she invited me to join in the feast
with her and her friends!
Pg.30 (Dawsey)
There is so much we wanted to know during the war, but we were
not allowed letters or papers from England - or anywhere.
Pg. 33 (Juliet)
The old adage - humor is the best way to make the unbearable
bearable- may be true.
Pg. 39 (Juliet)
I would never make fun of anyone who loved to read.
Pg. 39 (Juliet)
I have asked the Reverend...to write to you. He had known me
since I was a child and is fond of me. I have asked Lady Bella Taunton to
provide a reference for me too. We were fire wardens during the Blitz and she
wholeheartedly dislikes me. Between the two of them, you may get a fair picture
of my character.
Pg. 42 (Lady Bella Taunton)
I cannot impugn her character- only her common sense. She hasn't
any.
Pg. 43 (Lady Bella Taunton)
Her light, frivolous turn of mind gained her a large following
among the less intellectually inclined readers - of whom, I fear, there are
many.
Pg. 44 (Lady Bella Taunton)
I believe Juliet to have been adequate for that daytime task
-causing no catastrophe among the teacups.
Pg. 46 (Reverend Simon Simpless)
I knew exactly where to go - to her parents' former farm. I
found her opposite the farm's entrance, sitting on a little wooded knoll,
impervious to the rain - just sitting there, soaked - looking at her old (now
sold) home.
Pg. 48 (Juliet)
Dear Susan,
I deny everything.
Love, Juliet
Pg.53 (Isola Pribby)
Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books.
Pg. 60 (Juliet)
I don't particularly care for carnivals, but after the tunnel,
it's delicious.
Pg. 70 (Juliet)
I had talked and lived war for six years, and I was longing to
pay attention to something - anything - else. But that is like wishing I were
someone else. The war is now the story of our lives, and there is no
subtracting it.
Pg. 70 (Juliet)
Elizabeth McKenna was brave that night! She truly has grace
under pressure, a quality that fills me with hopeless admiration.
Pg. 71 (Clovis Fossey)
Ralph, he's a big bragger when he drinks, and he said to all in
the tavern, "Women like poetry. A soft word in their ears and they melt -
a grease spot on the grass." That's no way to talk about lady, and I knew
right then he didn't want the Widow Hubert for her own self, the way I did. He
wanted only her grazing land for his cows. So I thought - If it's rhymes the
Widow Hubert wants, I will find me some. I went to see Mr. Fox in his book shop
and ask for some love poetry.
Pg. 75 (Eben Ramsey)
I will tell you now about our roast pig. The Germans were fussy
over farm animals. Pigs and cows or kept strict count of.
Pg. 76 (Eben Ramsey)
They would make surprise visits to your farm, and your number of
living pigs had better tally up with their number of living pigs. One pig less
and you were fined, one time more and you could be arrested.
Pg. 85 (Juliet)
He needs a rest, and breaking his leg is probably the only way
he'll allow himself to take one.
Pg. 87 (Juliet)
I don't know as much about children as I would like to. I am
godmother to a wonderful three-year-old boy named Dominic, and the son of my
friend Sophie. They live in Scotland, near Oban, and I don't get to see him
often. I am always astonished, when I do, at his increasing personhood - no sooner had I gotten used to carrying
about a warm lump of baby and he stopped being one and started scurrying around
on his own.
Pg. 87 (Juliet)
No sooner had I gotten used to carrying around a warm lump of
baby than he stopped being one. I missed six months, and lo and behold, he
learned how to talk! Now he talks to himself, which I find terribly endearing
since I do, too.
Pg. 89 (John Booker)
Seneca. Do you know who he was? He was a Roman philosopher who
wrote letters to imaginary friends telling them how to behave for the rest of
their lives. Maybe that sounds dull, but the letters aren't - they're witty.
Pg. 90 (John Booker)
We were to load the boat with his silver, his paintings, his
bibelots, and, if enough room, Lady Tobias, and set sail at once for England.
Pg. 92 (John Booker)
I came to love our book meetings - they helped to make the Occupation bearable.
Pg. 95 (Dawsey)
But some of the girls who dated soldiers gave the cigarettes to
their fathers and bread to their families. They would come home from parties
with rolls, pates, meat patties, and jellies stuffed in their purses, and their
families would have a full meal the next day.
Pg. 95 (Dawsey)
I don't think some Islanders ever credited the boredom of those
years as a reason to befriend the enemy.
Boredom is a powerful reason, and the prospect of fun is a powerful draw
- especially when you are young.
Pg. 97 (Dawsey)
The way that Christian and I met may have been unusual, but our
friendship was not.
Pg. 104 (Amelia)
I, too, have felt that the war goes on and on.
Pg. 113 (Dawsey)
I don't know what ails Adelaide Addison. Isola says she is a
blight because she likes being a blight - it gives her a sense of destiny.
Pg. 118 (Juliet)
I am glad you want to know more about me and am only sorry I
didn't think of it myself, and sooner.
Pg. 119 (Juliet)
I was a fairly nice child until my parents died when I was 12.
Pg. 121 (Juliet)
I suppose I do have a suitor, but I'm not really used to him
yet. He's terribly charming and he plies me with delicious meals, but I
sometimes think I prefer suitors in books rather than right in front of me. How
awful, backward, cowardly, and mentally warped that will be if it turns out to
be true.
Pg. 123 (Eben)
Jane had no more strength than a cat then, but she knew her
mind.
Pg. 126 (Isola)
Yes she did - slapped her right across the face. It was lovely.
Pg. 127 (Isola)
You have had such sadness with your Ma and Pa and your home by
the river, for which things I'm sorry.
But me, I am glad you have dear friends.
Pg. 140 (Isola)
"I'm not going to sit inside waiting for them. I'm going to
town to seek out my enemy."
"And what are you
going to do after you've found him?" I asks, sort of snappish.
"I'm going to look at him," she says. "We're not
animals in a cage - they are. They're stuck on this island with us, same as
we're stuck with the. Come on, let's go stare."
Pg. 142 (An Animal Lover)
I too am a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel
Society - but I never wrote to you about my books, because I only read two -
Pg. 153 (Mark)
You asked me to give you time, and I have. You asked me not to mention marriage, and I
haven't. But now you tell me that you're off to bloody Guernsey for - what? A
week? A month? Forever? Do you think I'm going to sit back and let you go?
Pg. 164 (Juliet)
Guernsey is beautiful and my new friends have welcome to me so
generously, so warmly, that I haven't doubted I've done the right to come here
-
Pg. 175 (Juliet)
I knew that all children were gruesome, but I don't know whether
I'm supposed to encourage them in it.
Pg. 181 (Remy Giraud)
I am perhaps saying too much, things you do not wish to hear.
But I must do this to tell you how Elizabeth lived - and how she held on hard
to her kindness and her courage. I would like her daughter to know this also.
Pg. 185 (Juliet)
I'm sorry that our conversation ended badly last night. It's
very difficult to convey shades of meaning while roaring into the telephone.
