Diana Gabaldon: I want to hold you like a kitten in my shirt, and stil...

There comes a turning point in intense physical struggle where one abandons oneself to a profligate usage of strength and bodily resource, ignoring the costs until the struggle is over. Women find this point in childbirth; men in battle.

Diana Gabaldon

battle struggle men

Not for the first time, I reflected that intimacy and romance are not synonymous.

Diana Gabaldon

intimacy romance firsts

If ye loved him, he must ha' been a good man.' 'Yes, he...was.' 'Then I shall do my best to honor his spirit by serving his wife.

Diana Gabaldon

good-man wife men

She sounded as though love were an unfortunate but unavoidable condition.

Diana Gabaldon

conditions unfortunate

He was dead. However, his nose throbbed painfully, which he thought odd in the circumstances.

Diana Gabaldon

odd circumstances noses

I was born for you" -Claire Fraser, Outlander

Diana Gabaldon

outlander claire born

D'ye think I don't know?" he asked softly. "It's me that has the easy part now. For if ye feel for me as I do for you-then I'm asking you to tear out your heart and live without it.

Diana Gabaldon

tears heart thinking

Oh, Claire, ye do break my heart wi' loving you.

Diana Gabaldon

loving-you break heart

It was in a way a comforting idea; if there was all the time in the world, then the happenings of a given moment became less important.

Diana Gabaldon

important comforting ideas

There was a feeling, not sudden, but complete, as though I had been given a small object to hold unseen in my hands. Precious as opal, smooth as jade, weighty as a river stone, more fragile than a bird's egg. Infinitely still, live as the root of Creation. Not a gift, but a trust. Fiercely to cherish, softly to guard. The words spoke themselves and disappeared into the groined shadows of the roof.

Diana Gabaldon

small-objects eggs hands

For where all love is, the speaking is unnecessary

Diana Gabaldon

sweet-love unnecessary love-is

Hodie mihi cras tibi, said the inscription. Sic transit gloria mundi. My turn today, yours tomorrow. And thus passes away the glory of the world.

Diana Gabaldon

passing-away today world

One dictum I had learned on the battlefields of France in a far distant war: You cannot save the world, but you might save the man in front of you, if you work fast enough.

Diana Gabaldon

men war world

He splayed a hand out over the photographs, trembling fingers not quite touching the shiny surface, and then he turned and leaned toward me, slowly, with the improbable grace of a tall tree falling. He buried his face in my shoulder and went very quietly and thoroughly to pieces.

Diana Gabaldon

tree hands fall

Gentle he would be, denied he would not.

Diana Gabaldon

denied gentle would-be

I didn't say you shouldn't worry, do you think I don't worry? But no, you probably can't do anything about me.' 'Well, maybe no, Sassenach, and maybe so. But I've lived a long enough time now to think it maybe doesna matter so much-- so long as I can love you.' -Claire & Jamie Fraser

Diana Gabaldon

love-you long thinking

So long as my body lives, and yours -- we are one flesh," he whispered, "And when my body shall cease, my soul will still be yours. Claire -- I swear by my hope of heaven, I will not be parted from you.

Diana Gabaldon

soul heaven long

A cold supper, were you thinking? I asked dubiously. I was not, he said firmly, I mean to light a roaring fire in the kitchen hearth, fry up a dozen eggs in butter, and eat them all, then lay ye down on the hearth rug and roger ye 'till you - is that all right? he inquired, noticing my look. 'Til I what? I asked fascinated by his description of the evening's program. 'Til ye burst into flame and take me with ye, I suppose, he said, and stooping, swooped me up into his arms and carried me across the darkened threshold.

Diana Gabaldon

light mean thinking

This was nonsense, he thought. The need of her was a physical thing, like the thirsty of a sailor becalmed for weeks on the sea. He'd felt the need before, often, often, in their years apart. But why now? She was safe; he knew where she was - was it only the exhaustion of the past weeks and days, or perhaps the weakness of creeping age that made his bones ache, as though she had in fact been torn from his body, as God had made Eve from Adam's rib?

Diana Gabaldon

sea past years

But we are here, all of us. And we're here because I love you, more than the life that was mine. Because I believed you loved me the same way...will you tell me that's not true? No, he said after a moment, so softly I could barely hear him. His hand tightened harder on mine. No, I willna tell ye that. Not ever, Claire.

Diana Gabaldon

i-love-you-more hands way

I want to hold you like a kitten in my shirt, and still I want to spread your thighs and plow ye like a rotting bull. I dinna understand myself.