Sarah Dunant, The Birth of Venus: A Novel (New York: Random House, 2003) ("Why, I thought, must there always be two conversations, one that women have when there are men present and one we have when we are alone?" Id. at 85. [I am reminded of a line from a Tom T. Hall's song, 'Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine': "Women they talk about themselves when men folk are not around." True or not?]).
Sarah Dunant, Fatlands (A Hannah Wolfe Crime Novel) (New York: Scribner, 1993, 2004) ("Bloody chambers. Except by the time the pigs go here they would already be dead. You had to remember that. The business was meat, not deliberate cruelty. The only cruelty was our appetites." Id. at 220. "I had ridden into all of this on my white charger consumed with the ideals of justice and truth. Stupid, really. You'd think by now I would have learnt that in most cases the good guys are just less mean than the bad one." Id. at 113. "Let's hear it for self-righteousness. Good guys, bad guys; I tell you if it wasn't for the deaths I wonder how much there would be to choose between them." Id. at 183.).
Sarah Dunant, In the Company of the Courtesan: A Novel (New York: Random House, 2006) ("The joys of war always talk better than they play; still the prospect of a battle won...was enticing enough to attract a few adventurers with nothing to lose...." Id. at 4. "But anyone who has been young knows that the great grief of love is that your body feels the most when it knows the least." Id. at 247.).
Sarah Dunant, Mapping the Edge: A Novel (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 1999) ("What is it with us women? We are new and brave and clever and wild, but we still feed our hearts into the meat mincer of love and then weep and wail when they come out all broken and bloody." Id. at 95.).
Sarah Dunant, Sacred Hearts: A Novel (New York: Random House, 2009) ("[O]ver the years she has come to understand that the only true comfort one can offer another is the one you yourself feel." Id. at 12. "It is one thing to pit your wits against a skilled opponent, another thing entirely to find yourself undermined by your own side." Id. at 285.).
Sarah Dunant, Snowstorms in a Hot Climate: A Novel (New York: Random House, 1988) ("Of course it is all fallacy, the romance just a creation of admen and soft-porn merchants. Travel changes nothing except the location." Id. at 4. "I should know the signs, Women who are victims always throw themselves in the path of the oncoming truck and then complain when it runs over them." Id. at 48. "In the pursuit of pleasure one should never forget the quest for truth." Id. at 149. "[K]nowing the truth and supressing it does not make it go away, but may, in some cases, make it even more terrible." Id. at 185-186.).
Sarah Dunant, Transgressions: A Novel (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 1998, 2005) ("She sat for a moment. 'You know, there are times when I think they only let women into the Church because they didn't know what else to do. Then at least if things got worse, they could blame us.' She stopped, playing with the rim of her cup, deciding where to step next. 'I think that people's lives are very hard at the moment. There no longer seems to be any sense of a future, no vision of utopia to work toward. At least not any kind of social or political one.' She paused. 'But the fact is I do think God can help. I think that realizing that you're loved, that you're cared for, is the most powerful gift a person can be given. It's like opening a door that's been locked for too long. Once you've seen outside, everything, even the room behind you, looks different. It gives you such a strength, such freedom. And nothing can ever be so frightening again, or quite so painful.' She stopped, then smiled slightly. 'Or that's how it was for me. And still is.'" Id. at 121. "Hungry work, confronting your demons." Id. at 183. "Enough. Enough revenge. It didn't work. All it did was make you feel more soiled than them." Id. at 331).
Sarah Dunant, Under My Skin (A Hannah Wolfe Crime Novel) (New York: Scribner, 1995) ("'You shouldn't think of it in such terms. Gambling is like life. If you expect to be treated badly, that is how it will be. Assume you are going to win, play it to the end, but never risk more than you are able to bear losing...." Id. at 114.).
