“
Elsa decides that even if people she likes have been shits on earlier occasions, she has to learn to carry on liking them. You’d quickly run out of people if you had to disqualify all those who at some point have been shits.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
People have to tell their stories, Elsa. Or they suffocate.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
It’s hard to help those who don’t want to help themselves.”
“Someone who wants to help himself is possibly not the one who most needs help from others,” Elsa objects.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness.
”
”
Elsa Schiaparelli
“
Don't worry about dying, Elsa. Worry about not living. Be brave." - Grandpa Wolcott
”
”
Kristin Hannah (The Four Winds)
“
I don't remember my dreams,' I tell the boy with grey eyes.
He pinches my cheek. 'I'll dream for the both of us.'
'Promise?'
'Promise, Elsa
”
”
Rina Kent (Twisted Kingdom (Royal Elite, #3))
“
Everything is complicated if no one explains it to you.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
My Elsa. She’s mine. Fucking mine. And no one will change that. Not even her.
”
”
Rina Kent (Steel Princess (Royal Elite, #2))
“
Elsa is the sort of child who learned early in life that it's easier to make your way if you get to choose your own soundtrack.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
Elsa knew that a library card—a thing they’d taken for granted all of their lives—meant there was still a future.
”
”
Kristin Hannah (The Four Winds)
“
He places a finger under my chin and lifts so I’m facing him. “You don’t have to be ashamed of who you are with me, Elsa. You can be a fucking lunatic, and I still won’t let you go.
”
”
Rina Kent (Steel Princess (Royal Elite, #2))
“
There was a pain that came with constant disapproval; a sense of having lost something unnamed, unknown. Elsa had survived it by being quiet, by not demanding or seeking attention, by accepting that she was loved, but unliked.
”
”
Kristin Hannah (The Four Winds)
“
Jean reached over for Elsa’s hand and held it. Elsa hadn’t known until right then how much difference a friend could make. How one person could lift your spirit just enough to keep you upright.
”
”
Kristin Hannah (The Four Winds)
“
Granny and Elsa used to watch the evening news together. Now and then Elsa would ask Granny why grown-ups were always doing such idiotic things to each other. Granny usually answered that it was because grown-ups were generally people, and people are generally shits. Elsa countered that grown-ups were also responsible for a lot of good things in between all the idiocy – space exploration, the UN, vaccines and cheese slicers, for instance. Granny then said the real trick of life was that almost no one is entirely a shit and almost no one is entirely not a shit. The hard part of life is keeping as much on the ‘not-a-shit’ side as one can.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises)
“
Granny was the sort of person you brought with you when you went to war, and that was what Elsa loved about her.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
Elsa's joke Where do baby apes sleep?
In apricots!
”
”
Jacqueline Wilson
“
And then he pushed Elsa into a radiator. And then Elsa hit him with a book. Elsa still thinks he should thank her for it, because that’s probably the nearest that boy ever got to a book.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
Aiden...Oh, my God, Aiden!!"
" I Love The Idea Of Being Your God.
”
”
Rina Kent (Deviant King (Royal Elite #1))
“
I don’t like attention, and it’s not because I prefer staying under the radar like Elsa, but because attention is kind of stupid. What do you do with attention? You can’t even eat it.
”
”
Rina Kent (Vicious Prince (Royal Elite, #5))
“
Langdon watched the phone plummet down and splash into the dark waters of the Nervión River. As it disappeared beneath the surface, he felt a pang of loss, staring back after it as the boat raced on.
“Robert,” Ambra whispered, “just remember the wise words of Disney’s Princess Elsa.”
Langdon turned. “I’m sorry?”
Ambra smiled softly. “Let it go.
”
”
Dan Brown (Origin (Robert Langdon, #5))
“
There are no photos here, as there were in the woman’s flat. Only books. “You got any good ones, then?” she asks, scanning the shelves. “I don’t know what you think is good,” the woman answers carefully. “Do you have any Harry Potters?” “No.” “Not even one?” Elsa asks, incredulous. “No.” “You have all these books and not a single Harry Potter? And they let you fix people whose heads are broken?
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
To quote the most famous lesbian of all time, Elsa of Arendelle, “The past is in the past.
”
”
Jake Maia Arlow (How to Excavate a Heart)
“
Quelli come te, che hanno due sangui diversi nelle vene, non trovano mai riposo né contentezza; e mentre sono là, vorrebbero trovarsi qua, e appena tornati qua, subito hanno voglia di scappar via. Tu te ne andrai da un luogo all’altro, come se fuggissi di prigione, o corressi in cerca di qualcuno; ma in realtà inseguirai soltanto le sorti diverse che si mischiano nel tuo sangue, perché il tuo sangue è come un animale doppio, è come un cavallo grifone, come una sirena. E potrai anche trovare qualche compagnia di tuo gusto, fra tanta gente che s’incontra al mondo; però, molto spesso, te ne starai solo. Un sangue-misto di rado si trova contento in compagnia: c’è sempre qualcosa che gli fa ombra, ma in realtà è lui che si fa ombra da se stesso, come il ladro e il tesoro, che si fanno ombra uno con l’altro.
”
”
Elsa Morante (L'isola di Arturo)
“
Elsa said, "You saved me, you know."
"Mothers and daughters. We save each other, si?
”
”
Kristin Hannah (The Four Winds)
“
I couldn’t care less about families clashing. I’ve already taken a side and it’s Elsa’s.
”
”
Rina Kent (Twisted Kingdom (Royal Elite, #3))
“
It’s stupid, really. She should’ve learnt by now that nothing — absolutely nothing — will keep me away from her. Elsa can wear armour, and I’ll stab straight through it. Hell, she can hide behind a fort, and I’ll bring the whole fucking thing down.
”
”
Rina Kent (Steel Princess (Royal Elite, #2))
“
...Elsa had grown conscious of the fact that the girl hadn't read Harry Potter at all. She knew who he was, of course, everyone knows who Harry Potter is, but she hadn't read the books....And while Elsa didn't want to be elitist or anything, how could one be expected to reason with a person like that?
Muggles.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
Un sangue-misto di rado si trova contento in compagnia: c'è sempre qualcosa che gli fa ombra , ma in realtà è lui che si fa ombra da se stesso, come il ladro e il tesoro, che si fanno ombra uno con l'altro
”
”
Elsa Morante (L'isola di Arturo)
“
I didn’t want you to remember this day because of the scarf. So I thought instead you could remember it as the day your Granny broke into a zoo—” “And escaped from a hospital,” Elsa says with a grin. “And escaped from a hospital,” says Granny with a grin. “And threw turds at the police.” “Actually, it was soil! Or mainly soil, anyway.” “Changing memories is a good superpower, I suppose.” Granny shrugs. “If you can’t get rid of the bad, you have to top it up with more goody stuff.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
Because when you love someone very much, it's difficult to learn to share her with someone else.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
It's possible to love your grandmother for years and years without really knowing anything about her.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
Elsa hadn’t known until right then how much difference a friend could make. How one person could lift your spirit just enough to keep you upright.
”
”
Kristin Hannah (The Four Winds)
“
Robert,” Ambra whispered, “just remember the wise words of Disney’s Princess Elsa.”
Langdon turned. “I’m sorry?”
Ambra smiled softly. “Let it go.
”
”
Dan Brown (Origin (Robert Langdon, #5))
“
I don’t want Elsa to know that I am going to die because all seven-year-olds deserve superheroes, Marcel. And one of their superpowers ought to be that they can’t get cancer.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
It’s easier to get people talking about things they dislike than things they like, Elsa has noticed. And it’s easier not to get frightened of shadows in the dark
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises)
“
So many hearts broke the day Elsa was born. Shattered with such force by the wave that the shards of the glass were dispersed all around the world. Improbable catastrophes produce improbable things in people, improbable sorrow and improbable heroism.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
But Miamas is Granny and Elsa’s favorite kingdom, because there storytelling is considered the noblest profession of all. The currency there is imagination; instead of buying something with coins, you buy it with a good story. Libraries aren’t known as libraries but as “banks,” and every fairy tale is worth a fortune.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
Many men admire strong women but they don't love them. Some women succeed at being strong and also tender, but most of those who have intended to walk alone, making their own way, have lost their happiness.
”
”
Elsa Schiaparelli (Shocking Life: The Autobiography of Elsa Schiaparelli)
“
God remains silent so that men and women may speak, protest, and struggle. God remains silent so that people may really become people. When God is silent and men and women cry, God cries in solidarity with them but doesn't intervene. God waits for the shouts of protest.
”
”
Elsa Tamez
“
You don’t have to be ashamed of who you are with me, Elsa. You can be a fucking lunatic, and I still won’t let you go.
”
”
Rina Kent (Steel Princess (Royal Elite, #2))
“
Mum puts her hand on Elsa's hand, and inhales deeply from the point where they are touching, as if trying to fill her lungs with Elsa. As mums do with daughters who grow up too fast.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
Man, by his very nature, tends to give himself an explanation of the world into which he is born. And this is what distinguishes him from the other species. Every individual, even the least intelligent, the lowest of outcasts, from childhood on gives himself some explanation of the world. And with it he manages to live. And without it, he would sink into madness.
”
”
Elsa Morante (History)
“
Sometimes I think I'd like someone to kill him."
Alf doesn't answer. Elsa looks at the hammer.
"I mean... sort of kill, anyway. I know one shouldn't think people deserve to die. But sometimes I'm not sure people like him deserve to live..."
Alf leans against the balcony railing.
"It's human."
"Is it human to want people to die?"
Alf shakes his head calmly.
"It's human not to be sure.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
that if you hate the one who hates, you could risk becoming like the one you hate.’ Elsa’s shoulders shoot up to her ears. ‘Granny always said: “Don’t kick the shit, it’ll go all over the place!
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises)
“
There hasn’t been a day where I haven’t thought about you. Every time I manage to sleep, I dream of you. You were my obsession since we were kids, but now it’s way fucking worse. I don’t know how I managed to spend eight years without you in my life when now I suffocate if I don’t see you for hours.” My eyes fill with tears. “Aiden…” “Choose me, Elsa. Choose us.
”
”
Rina Kent (Twisted Kingdom (Royal Elite, #3))
“
Elsa heard one of the doctors at Mum’s hospital saying that Granny “could start a fight in an empty room,” but when Elsa told Granny she just looked miffed and said, “What if it was the room that started it?
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
Although the release was heartbreaking for the Adamsons, they were mindful that she had been born free.
”
”
Joy Adamson (Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds (Story of Elsa, #1))
“
laugh at yourself first, before anyone else can
”
”
Elsa Maxwell
“
He is wearing a rugby shirt with numbers and a little man on a horse on his chest. Kent has told Elsa that this sort of shirt costs more than a thousand kronor, and Granny always used to say that those sorts of shirts were a good thing, because the horse functioned as a sort of manufacturer’s warning that the shirt was highly likely to be transporting a muppet.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
It was a sunny day, and Einstein merrily played with the telescope’s dials and instruments. Elsa came along as well, and it was explained to her that the equipment was used to determine the scope and shape of the universe. She reportedly replied, “Well, my husband does that on the back of an old envelope.
”
”
Walter Isaacson (Einstein: His Life and Universe)
“
L'amore vero è così: non ha nessuno scopo e nessuna ragione, e non si sottomette a nessun potere fuorché alla grazia umana.
”
”
Elsa Morante (L'isola di Arturo)
“
Ah, Elsa. You got a wrong picture of yourself.
Even if that is true, what does a person do about it? The things your parents say and the things your husband doesn't say become a mirror, don't they? You see yourself as they see you. and no mater how far you come, you bring that mirror with you.
Break it, Jean said.
How?
With a gosh dang rock. Jean leaned forward. I'm a mirror too, Elsa. You remember that.
”
”
Kristin Hannah (The Four Winds)
“
Then the boy shouted that Elsa couldn't be Spider-Man because 'only boys can be Spider-Man!' And then Elsa told him he could be Spider-Man's girlfriend. And then he pushed Elsa into a radiator. And then Elsa hit him with a book.
Elsa still thinks he should thank her for it, because that's probably the nearest that boy ever got to a book.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
Così dunque la vita é rimasta un mistero. E io stesso, per me, sono ancora il primo mistero.
”
”
Elsa Morante (L'isola di Arturo)
“
E così in eterno ogni perla del mare ricopia la prima perla, e ogni rosa ricopia la prima rosa
”
”
Elsa Morante (L'isola di Arturo)
“
It was nearly a week before we returned. We found her waiting, and very hungry. She was full of affection; we had deceived her so often, broken faith with her, done so much to destroy her trust in us, yet she remained loyal.
”
”
Joy Adamson (Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds (Story of Elsa, #1))
“
A few days go by. Maybe a few weeks. But after that, one by one, other different children start tagging along with Alex and Elsa in the playground and corridors. Until there are so many of them that no one dares to chase them anymore. Until they’re an army in themselves. Because if a sufficient number of people are different, no one has to be normal.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
It’s snowing again, and Elsa decides that even if people she likes have been shits on earlier occasions, she has to learn to carry on liking them. You’d quickly run out of people if you had to disqualify all those who at some point have been shits. She thinks that this will have to be the moral of this story. Christmas stories are supposed to have morals.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
After Elsa’s death, Einstein established a routine that as the years passed varied less and less. Breakfast between 9 and 10 was followed by a walk to the institute. After working until 1pm he would return home for lunch and a nap. Afterwards he would work in his study until dinner between 6.30 and 7pm. If not entertaining guests, he would return to work until he went to bed between 11 and 12. He rarely went to the theatre or to a concert, and unlike Bohr, hardly ever watched a movie. He was, Einstein said in 1936, ‘living in the kind of solitude that is painful in one’s youth but in one’s more mature years is delicious’.
”
”
Manjit Kumar (Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality)
“
The site of his thinking and writing was a small office wedged in one corner of his shaggy house, on whose door he’d installed a lock to keep his sons out. They gathered wistfully outside it, his boys, with their chipped, heartbreaking faces. They were not permitted to so much as knock upon the door to the room in which he thought and wrote about art, but Ted hadn’t found a way to keep them from prowling outside it, ghostly feral creatures drinking from a pond in moonlight, their bare feet digging at the carpet, their fingers sweating on the walls, leaving spoors of grease that Ted would point out each week to Elsa, the cleaning woman. He would sit in his office, listening to the movements of his boys, imagining that he felt their hot, curious breath. I will not let them in, he would tell himself. I will sit and think about art. But he found, to his despair, that often he couldn’t think about art. He thought about nothing at all.
”
”
Jennifer Egan (A Visit from the Goon Squad)
“
She can endure pain and loss without any trouble, but she doesn't know how to react facing happiness.
”
”
Elsa Schiaparelli (Shocking Life: The Autobiography of Elsa Schiaparelli)
“
It takes more than a printed notice to keep you from reality. . . . We've only one life to live.
”
”
Agatha Christie (Five Little Pigs (Hercule Poirot, #25))
“
The old Elsa would’ve watched me with a wild gaze. She would’ve had a battle in those electric blue eyes about whether to fight or to save her energy. Not this Elsa. She doesn’t flinch. She just remains as immovable as a statue. A cold, frigid statue. This isn’t my Elsa. And if I have to break the statue to bring her out, then so be it. She stares up at me with dim eyes. “We’re enemies, aren’t we?” “Maybe.” “Then we’re over,” she says with more strength than needed. I push a stray blonde strand behind her ear, taking my time to feel the warmth of her skin against mine. “That’s where you’re wrong, sweetheart,” I murmur near her mouth, “Being enemies doesn’t change the fact that you’re fucking mine.
”
”
Rina Kent (Steel Princess (Royal Elite, #2))
“
Ma no, anche l’estate, invece, sarebbe tornata immancabilmente, uguale al solito. Non la si può uccidere, essa è un drago invulnerabile che sempre rinasce, con la sua fanciullezza meravigliosa. Ed era un’orrida gelosia che mi amareggiava, questa: di pensare all’isola di nuovo infuocata dall’estate, senza di me!
”
”
Elsa Morante (L'isola di Arturo)
“
Dunque, pare che alle anime viventi possano toccare due sorti: c'è chi nasce ape, e chi nasce rosa...
Che fa lo sciame delle api, con la sua regina? Va, e ruba a tutte le rose un poco di miele, per portarselo nell'arnia, nelle sue stanzette. E la rosa? La rosa l'ha in se stessa, il proprio miele: miele di rose, il più adorato, il più prezioso! La cosa più dolce che innamora essa l'ha già in se stessa: non le serve cercarla altrove. Ma qualche volta sospirano di solitudine, le rose, questi esseri divini! Le rose ignoranti non capiscono i propri misteri.
La prima di tutte le rose è Dio.
Fra le due: la rosa e l'ape, secondo me, la più fortunata è l'ape. E l'Ape Regina, poi, ha una fortuna sovrana! Io, per esempio, sono nato Ape Regina. E tu, Wilhelm? Secondo me, tu, Wilhelm mio, sei nato col destino più dolce e col destino più amaro:
tu sei l'ape e sei la rosa.
”
”
Elsa Morante (L'isola di Arturo)
“
When I joined her a few moments later, she licked my arm, embraced me with her paw and hugged me to her wet body. We relaxed after the morning’s excitement. I felt very touched by her gentleness and the care with which she treated my skin and avoided scratching me with claws that only a few minutes ago had been so deadly to the thick skin of a powerful buffalo.
”
”
Joy Adamson (Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds (Story of Elsa, #1))
“
Elsa decides they should begin by taking the bus, like normal knights on normal quests in more or less normal fairytales when there aren’t any horses or cloud animals available. But when all the other people at the bus stop starts eyeing The Monster and the wurse and nervously shuffling as far away from them as it’s possible to be without ending up at the next bus stop, she realises it’s not going to be quite so straightforward.
On boarding the bus it becomes immediately clear that wurses are not at all partial to travelling on public transport. After it had snuffled about and stepped on people’s toes and overturned bags with its tail and accidently dribbled a bit on a seat a little too close to The Monster for The Monster to feel entirely comfortable, Elsa decides to forget the whole thing, and then all three of them get off. Exactly one stop later
”
”
Fredrik Backman (My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry)
“
Se lui avesse potuto dire il suo nome ancora una volta, a voce così bassa da poterla sentire invece che ascoltarla.Se lo avesse fatto, così piano da non permettere alla veglia di ricordarle perché quel suono non poteva più renderla felice.Se solo non avesse mai smesso di piovere.Eloise, sei sveglia?Sì, e non voglio.Sotto la mano il cuscino era fresco e morbido, negli spazi tra le sue dita se ne insinuavano altre, calde e dure perché abituate a riempire di lusinghe l'elsa di una spada, non solo la pelle di una donna. Prendeva la sua una mano fatta per accarezzare e per uccidere.Una mano che l'aveva accarezzata, e poi uccisa.«Axel».Forse c'era stato uno scatto di esultanza profonda, perché ridestandosi aveva pronunciato per prima cosa il suo nome.Qualcosa che aveva a che fare col possesso e il riconoscimento.Qualcosa di così profondo che, se non si fosse opposta, avrebbe finito per precipitarvi dentro.Qualcosa che tra loro due era sempre esistito.L'aveva accarezzata.A quanto le avevano raccontato, lui era stata la prima cosa del mondo su cui aveva aperto gli occhi. Un fagottino di neonata, avvolta tra le braccia di un bambinetto di tre anni appena, che sollevava di colpo le palpebre incontrando per la prima volta due occhi blu pieni di amore e trionfo fissi su di lei.E poi uccisa.Una cicatrice che si risvegliava pulsando, lo spettro di dolore di un arto amputato, che esisteva solo nel ricordo dei nervi e bruciava, bruciava come fuoco.Lui era sete, tanta da accettare di annegare pur di riuscire a bere.«Axel».«Sono qui».
”
”
Virginia De Winter (L'Ordine della spada (Black Friars, #1))
“
L'Amour qui n'est pas un mot
Mon Dieu jusqu'au dernier moment
Avec ce coeur débile et blême
Quand on est l'ombre de soi-même
Comment se pourrait-il comment
Comment se pourrait-il qu'on aime
Ou comment nommer ce tourment
Suffit-il donc que tu paraisses
De l'air que te fait rattachant
Tes cheveux ce geste touchant
Que je renaisse et reconnaisse
Un monde habité par le chant
Elsa mon amour ma jeunesse
O forte et douce comme un vin
Pareille au soleil des fenêtres
Tu me rends la caresse d'être
Tu me rends la soif et la faim
De vivre encore et de connaître
Notre histoire jusqu'à la fin
C'est miracle que d'être ensemble
Que la lumière sur ta joue
Qu'autour de toi le vent se joue
Toujours si je te vois je tremble
Comme à son premier rendez-vous
Un jeune homme qui me ressemble
M'habituer m'habituer
Si je ne le puis qu'on m'en blâme
Peut-on s'habituer aux flammes
Elles vous ont avant tué
Ah crevez-moi les yeux de l'âme
S'ils s'habituaient aux nuées
Pour la première fois ta bouche
Pour la première fois ta voix
D'une aile à la cime des bois
L'arbre frémit jusqu'à la souche
C'est toujours la première fois
Quand ta robe en passant me touche
Prends ce fruit lourd et palpitant
Jettes-en la moitié véreuse
Tu peux mordre la part heureuse
Trente ans perdus et puis trente ans
Au moins que ta morsure creuse
C'est ma vie et je te la tends
Ma vie en vérité commence
Le jour que je t'ai rencontrée
Toi dont les bras ont su barrer
Sa route atroce à ma démence
Et qui m'as montré la contrée
Que la bonté seule ensemence
Tu vins au coeur du désarroi
Pour chasser les mauvaises fièvres
Et j'ai flambé comme un genièvre
A la Noël entre tes doigts
Je suis né vraiment de ta lèvre
Ma vie est à partir de toi
”
”
Louis Aragon