Elizabeth Wein

“Las personas somos complicadas. Hay mucho más en nuestro interior de lo que se percibe a simple vista.”

“Se parece a enamorarse, saber que acabas de encontrar a tu mejor amiga.”

“Must stop. This ink is amazing, it really doesn't smear, even when you cry on it”

“Mary Queen of Scots had a little dog, a Skye terrier, that was devoted to her. Moments after Mary was beheaded, the people who were watching saw her skirts moving about and they thought her headless body was trying to get itself to its feet. But the movement turned out to be her dog, which she had carried to the block with her, hidden in her skirts. Mary Stuart is supposed to have faced her execution with grace and courage (she wore a scarlet chemise to suggest she was being martyred), but I don’t think she could have been so brave if she had not secretly been holding tight to her Skye terrier, feeling his warm, silky fur against her trembling skin.”

“Maddie took the top of her egg off. The hot bright yolk was like summer sun breaking through cloud. The first daffodil in the snow. A gold sovereign wrapped in a white silk handkerchief. She dipped her spoon in it and licked it.”

“High time they put the RAF in kilts.”

“It’s awful, telling it like this, isn’t it? As though we didn’t know the ending. As though it could have another ending. It’s like watching Romeo drink poison. Every time you see it you get fooled into thinking his girlfriend might wake up and stop him. Every single time you see it you want to shout, 'You stupid ass, just wait a minute,' and she’ll open her eyes! 'Oi, you, you twat, open your eyes, wake up! Don’t die this time!' But they always do.”

“I'M SCOTTISH!”

“But a part of me lies buried in lace and roses on a riverbank in France-a part of me is broken off forever. A part of me will be unflyable, stuck in the climb.”

“There’s glory and honour in being chosen. But not much room for free will”

“Southampton's barrage balloons floated gleaming in the moonlight like the ghosts of elephants and hippos.”

“Nothing like an arcane literary debate with your tyrannical master while you pass the time leading to your execution.”

“I AM A COWARD.”

“People are complicated. There is so much more to everybody than you realize. You see someone in school everyday, or at work, in the canteen, and you share a cigarette of a coffee with them, and you talk about the weather or last night's air raid. But you don't talk so much about what was the nastiest thing you ever said to your mother, or how you pretended to be David Balfour, the hero of Kidnapped, for the whole of the year when you were 13, or what you imagine yourself doing with the pilot who looks like Leslie Howard if you were alone in his bunk after a dance.”

“She has the filthiest tongue of any woman in France. Burn her mouth clean.”

“If you show this devious little liar one atom's worth of compassion I will have you shot.”

“And this, even more wonderful and mysterious, is also true: when I read it, when I read what Julie's written, she is instantly alive again, whole and undamaged. With her words in my mind while I'm reading, she is as real as I am. Gloriously daft, drop-dead charming, full of bookish nonsense and foul language, brave and generous. She's right here. Afraid and exhausted, alone, but fighting. Flying in silver moonlight in a plane that can't be landed, stuck in the climb—alive, alive, ALIVE.”

“How did you ever get here, Maddie Brodatt?""'Second to the right, and then straight on till morning,'" she answered promptly-it did feel like Neverland."Crikey, am I so obviously Peter Pan?"Maddie laughed. "The Lost Boys give it away."Jamie studied his hands. "Mother keeps the windows open in all our bedrooms while we're gone, like Mrs. Darling, just in case we come flying home when she's not expecting us.”

“A part of me will always be unflyable, stuck in the climb.”

“And I envied her that she had chosen her work herself and was doing what she wanted to do. I don't suppose I had any idea what I 'wanted' and so I was chosen, not choosing. There's glory and honor in being chosen. But not much room for free will.”

“Please come back soon. The window is always open.”

“He just put his hand through the bulkhead, exactly as she'd done, and squeezed my shoulder. He has very strong fingers.And he kept his hand there the whole way home, even when he was reading the map and giving me headings.So I am not flying alone now after all.”

“A whore, we've established that, filthy, it goes without saying, but whatever else the hell I am, I AM NOT ENGLISH.”

“It was a rather extraordinary conversation if you think about it -- both of us speaking in code. But not military code, not Intelligence or Resistance code -- just feminine code.”

“I, of course, took the opportunity to interpose with pigheaded Wallace pride, 'I am not English, you ignorant Jerry bastard, I am a SCOT.”

“Von Loewe really should know me well enough by now to realize that I am not going to face my execution without a fight. Or with anything remotely resembling dignity.”

“I am no longer afraid of getting old. Indeed I can't believe I ever said anything so stupid. So childish. So offensive and arrogant.But mainly, so very, very stupid. I desperately want to grow old.”

“If I am very lucky - I mean if I am clever about it - I will get myself shot. Here, soon.”

“The anticipation of what they will do to you is every bit as sickening in a dream as when it is really going to happen.”

“It's impossible to stall a Lizzie.”

“But I have told the truth. Isn't that ironic? They sent me because I am so good at telling lies. But I have told the truth.”

“It's like being in love, discovering your best friend.”

“One moment flying in green sunlight, then the sky suddenly grey and dark.”

“KISS ME, HARDY! Kiss me, QUICK!”

“FLY THE PLANE, MADDIE.”