# Paula Brackston

Paula Brackston (Dorset, England ) (aka P. J. Brackston, P. J. Davy, and Mabli Roberts) is the New York Times bestselling author of The Witch's Daughter and other historical fantasy novels. She also writes the fantasy crime Brothers Grimm Mystery series under the pseudonym P. J. Brackston.

## Quotes

* To learn, you must be humble. You must be prepared to admit your ignorance. You must allow yourselves to be filled with the vital information presented to you via the skills and dedication of those who have gone before you down the long path to enlightenment.
* If you are not able to travel, he told me, the next best thing is to read. Read all you can, girl. And store up that knowledge, for you never know when you will need it.
* Better foolish and honest than clever and false.
* Reputation is for those who can afford it.
* For, what is home? Surely more than a set of rooms, a roof, an address? Home suggests belonging. Suggests warmth, safety, companionship. Love.
* There is none so quick to dismiss what they don’t understand as those who are afraid of it. And maybe with reason.
* what can be imagined can be brought into being.
* We are each mistresses of our own happiness. We ought not to look to others to supply it.
* Faith requires no proof. No evidence. No explanation. Faith is entirely a matter of trust and belief. We cannot know, we can only believe.
* there is no courage in being fearless. Do you not know that? A person who knows fear and yet can still think of others, well, he be a brave man.
* Poverty has a way of taking the edge off principles. Hunger can blunt them altogether
* And as for company … I do not crave the companionship of other women, for I have never found one who did not judge me against herself and find me either to be envied or pitied. As for the friendship of men … well, when the day comes when one is man enough to treat me as his equal, then, only then, will I allow desire to be my guide.
* Nevertheless, disease and misfortune knew no social bounds. Nor did the immensely dangerous business of childbirth
* And secrets are dangerous. They start small but grow with every evasive answer or outright lie that protects them. Nevertheless, I confess to finding the closeness such conspiracy breeds irresistibly delicious.
* Knowledge cannot be unknown. Experience cannot be unlived.
* How much more tuneful are the birds of the woods than the birds of the water. Ducks and geese make their raucous racket without once finding a note of sweetness, whilst these tree dwellers are practiced in the art of melody.
* Who was it, I wonder, who decided that heartbroken relatives should host a party at the very moment all they wished for was to be left alone to grieve?
* My mind is like the willow; it flexes and springs. My heart is a knot of oak. Let them try to wound me.
* It’s a brilliant example of a writer in total control of her material, apparently effortlessly inhabiting the minds of her characters and giving them wonderfully individual voices.
* fear it is written somewhere in the terms of my parental contract: Fret frequently about well-being of offspring.
* She needs the hand of friendship extended. Are we not all of us, at some time or another, dependent on the kindness of others? Would we not wish someone to act selflessly for our sake?
* For whatever time we might have, my love. For whatever time we might have.
* After all, are we not measured by the way in which we treat the most vulnerable members of our society?
* Slowly Tegan looked up and I saw wonderment on her face. It was of the variety only ever found in those young enough to yet have minds as open as the oceans and hearts longing to have proof of magic.
* Many in Batchcombe have suffered greatly, William. They look for someone to blame. It was my mother who made me see that.” She hesitated, then added, “People fear what they cannot explain.
* Must we always bedeck ourselves in prettiness to be thought pleasing? It would appear so. A woman must look a certain way to be worthy of a man’s attentions. It is expected.
* Non-English quotation.
** Translation: English translation
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### Specific novel/play/work (date published or created)

Additional bibliographic details may be included in an introductory sentence, so they need not be repeated for each quotation.
* Book/Play1 (Book/Play1)
* Book/Play2 (Book/Play2)