The Pearl Thief Quotes

“That is a terrifically intimate thing, you know? Letting a stranger light your cigarette. Leaning forward so he can hold a flame to your lips. Pausing to breathe in before you pull back again.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“I love the story of a thing. I love a thing for what it means a thousand times more than for what it's worth.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“If you're scared, do something.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“Her own hair was a glory of copper fire that morning, shining like a whisky still, long and loose in gentle flames down her back.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“I need complicated railroad journeys and people speaking to me in foreign languages to keep me happy. I want to see the world and write stories about everything I see.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“It is possible there are some things you want so badly that you will change your life to make them happen.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“It makes you very uncomfortable to realize that your emotional attachment to something is an indulgence.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“How do you ever hold on to anybody?”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“It's like being raised by wolves -- you don't realize you're not one yourself until someone points it out to you. Sometimes it makes me so mad that not everyone treats me just like another wolf.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“For the pleasure of giving, because what's the point of just having? If I give a thing, I remember how happy we both were when I made the gift.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“It's very modern. Very gamine. You look like a jazz singer.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“Driving like a man is one of her few foibles.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“I realized I would be forced to run away from home if someone tried to arrange a marriage for me. I didn't want to think about it.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“I seem to be good at asking for trouble.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“She gave a low and delighted chuckle. Her eyes were black as a moonless December night and reflected the electric lights like stars.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“Ellen looked around the room with an odd expression, for the first few seconds not taking in the collection spread across the tables, but just taking in the library: the smell of ink and foxy paper and old wood, the green view of the river beyond the leaded casement window propped open just an inch. As if she loved it, but was a little scared to be there.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“The wave of memory had submerged me for a whole minute, while I'd just sat staring and let it all come flooding back.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“Looking up at the stars and smoking in silence.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“Och, they suit you, Queenie! Promise me you'll wear them.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“I ken who you are! You're Strathfearn's granddaughter. Julie Stuart, is it? Och, aye, Lady Julia! Well then, Lady Julia, tell me -- who don't you deserve a glass of water?”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief

“Inspector Milne's suspicious prying appeared to have awakened her inner Bolshevik, and so I discovered my own lady mother is not above quietly circumventing the law.”
― Elizabeth Wein, The Pearl Thief