Warren Fournier

“Torminster in A City of Bells is Wells. If the houses in the Close, hidden behind their high walls, could be seen with the eyes of imagination as fortresses, the Palace was one in actual fact. Grey, battlemented walls, with loopholes for arrows, surrounded it and its gardens, completely hiding them from sight, and a wide moat, brimful of water, surrounded the walls. The portcullis was still there, and the drawbridge that linked this warlike island to the peace of Torminster. As they stood watching, the swans obligingly rounded the curve of the moat and sailed royally towards the drawbridge… The foremost swan…pulled with his beak the bell-rope that hung from the Palace wall. He rang it once, imperiously…and instantly a human menial showered bread from a window. This ringing of the bell was the superb accomplishment of the swans of Torminster, an accomplishment that had made them world-famous.36 Small wonder that Elizabeth said, linking her own childhood experience with that of Robert Louis Stevenson: Looking back from such a different world, through such a length of time, it seems that the sheltered happy childhoods of Victorian and Edwardian days had a very special magic.37”
― Christine Rawlins, Beyond the Snow: The Life and Faith of Elizabeth Goudge

“Those who are fearful will find courage.
Those who are fearless will not know courage.
Those who are doubtful will find faith.
Those who are certain will not know faith.
Those who are shameful will find honor.
Those who are shameless will not know honor.”
― Graeme Rodaughan, The Key of Ahknaton

“shouting to each other like drummers in rock bands calling out rhythms, pasting new skin on the veins of the city.”
― Jon McGregor, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”
― Benjamin Franklin