Top 100 Sharon Kay Penman Quotes
#1. As they lay entwined together afterwards, they both were sure their future was blessed, and it would never have occurred to them that Henry and Eleanor had once believed that, too.
Sharon Kay Penman
#2. It is not easy to be stranded between two worlds, the sad truth is that we can never feel completely comfortable in either world
Sharon Kay Penman
#3. At least it was never dull, my darling. And you will be remembered long after we've all turned to dust. But so will I.
Sharon Kay Penman
#4. Removing his helmet, Edward knelt by the stream called Swillgate, a name that effectively quenched any desire to drink from its depths.
Sharon Kay Penman
#5. I do my best to build a strong factual foundation for each of my novels and rely upon my author's notes to keep my conscience clear.
Sharon Kay Penman
#6. Eleanor had followed Richard, marveling, as always, at the male inability to speak the language of the heart. "One day I hope to understand why men see sentiment as the ultimate enemy," she said dryly, "but I'll not be holding my breath until it happens.
Sharon Kay Penman
#7. I feel that historical novelists owe it to our readers to try to be as historically accurate as we can with the known facts. Obviously, we have to fill in the blanks. And then in the final analysis, we're drawing upon our own imaginations. But I think that readers need to be able to trust an author.
Sharon Kay Penman
#8. As wretched as she was, she wanted Harry to be miserable, too. And yet, she was aware of an underlying sense of sadness. Theirs may have been the first war in which there were no winners, only losers.
Sharon Kay Penman
#9. When people want to insult a man, they cast slurs upon his courage. But the worst they can say about a woman is to impugn her chastity.
Sharon Kay Penman
#10. Indeed. But I was not thinking of his immortal soul, Matilda. I was thinking that history is chronicled by monks.
Sharon Kay Penman
#11. Barbed banter was the coin of their realm and heartfelt admissions of affection were rejected out of hand as counterfeit.
Sharon Kay Penman
#12. In my life, I've been both the besieged and the besieged, and I know damned well which I prefer!
Sharon Kay Penman
#13. What an unfair advantage the dead had over the living, for there could be no rebuttal, no denial, nothing but the accusing silence of the grave.
Sharon Kay Penman
#14. To call it a "setback" is like calling the Expulsion from Eden a minor misunderstanding.
Sharon Kay Penman
#15. He could not change his nature, could not help being cautious, deliberate, introspective, not traits to be scorned by any means, but traits that seemed dull, bland - even to him - when compared with Davydd's hell-for-leather dazzle.
Sharon Kay Penman
#16. I'd not want to answer for the lives of other men; not at seventeen, by God's Grace.
Sharon Kay Penman
#17. A pity you were not born a woman in this life, Little King of Lesser Land, for you seek only to please and to be admired by all.
Sharon Kay Penman
#19. In a contest of wills between John and his mother, he did not think John would prevail, indeed he hoped he would not. But he did not care to be a witness to their confrontation; he suspected Eleanor's methods would be neither maternal nor merciful.
Sharon Kay Penman
#20. Respect can be as elusive as the unicorn. I know something of this because I write books that are set in the Middle Ages, and the historical novel is often seen as the unwanted stepchild in the fictional family. I know even more about respect - or the lack thereof - because I live in New Jersey.
Sharon Kay Penman
#21. She knew she'd wounded him when he'd least expected it, and her satisfaction lasted until the door had closed behind him. Once he was gone, it ebbed away along with her anger, leaving her with naught but the ashes and embers of a dying hearth fire.
Sharon Kay Penman
#22. He looked upon this verdant, blossoming spring, a spring Joanna would never see, he looked upon a field of brilliant blue flowers- the bluebells Joanna had so loved- and at that moment he'd willingly have bartered all his tomorrows for but one yesterday.
Sharon Kay Penman
#23. Hell and furies!" Eleanor had begun to pace, her skirts swirling about her ankles. "What was he thinking?"
"When does he ever think?" Richard straddled a chair and accepted a wine cup from Raoul. "If he were to sell his brain, he could claim it had never been used.
Sharon Kay Penman
#25. Those who served both the Almighty and secular lords did their best to follow Jesus's teachings and render unto Caesar the things which were Caesar's, and unto God the things that were God's, all the while praying they'd never have to choose between the two.
Sharon Kay Penman
#26. I suppose I should just be thankful that since you are so much given to treachery, you're so reassuringly inept at it.
Sharon Kay Penman
#27. War was war and soldiers were the same the world over, although killing came easier to some than others.
Sharon Kay Penman
#28. Between the two of us, we've got a family tree rooted in Hell!
Sharon Kay Penman
#29. Whilst stupidity may indeed be a sin, it is also possible to be too clever. I sometimes fear, John, that you are too clever by half.
Sharon Kay Penman
#30. Yes, there were good memories, too, thirty-seven years of good and bad. Quarrels and reconciliations. Eight cradles and too many gravestones and Rosamund Clifford and power that rivalled Caesar's, an empire that stretched from the Scots border to the Mediterranean Sea.
Sharon Kay Penman
#31. I should like to freeze in time all those I do love, keep them somehow safe from the ravages of the passing years ... Rather like flowers pressed between the pages of a book!
Sharon Kay Penman
#32. Well, dearest, what would you tell a farmer who had an over-abundant harvest? To plant less, of course!" ...
"I am not complaining about the frequency of the planting," she said. "I'd just rather not reap a crop every year.
Sharon Kay Penman
#33. Eleanor would have been indifferent to the immorality of her adultery, but would never have forgiven the stupidity of it.
Sharon Kay Penman
#34. For whatever reasons - which had never interested him in his youth but which he sometimes pondered as an adult - the Angevin House had always taken Cain and Abel as role models.
Sharon Kay Penman
#35. But in all honesty, I do not find it so peculiar a notion, that a Welshman should rule Wales.
Sharon Kay Penman
#36. His was a lonely, unorthodox conviction that war was man's ultimate failure.
Sharon Kay Penman
#39. The Lancastrian army had been on the march for fully fifteen hours, had managed to cover twenty-four miles in that dash for the Severn. But Edward had done the impossible; in just twelve hours, he'd ridden an astonishing thirty-five miles.
Sharon Kay Penman
#40. A scar signifies past pain, a wound that did not heal as it ought. But it testifies, too, to survival ... (Here be Dragons)
Sharon Kay Penman
#41. Eleanor's greatest grievance was not a simpering lass with flaxen hair and smooth skin. It was Aquitaine, always Aquitaine.
Sharon Kay Penman
#42. Whenever I've had to tamper with history for plot purposes, I make sure to mention that in my author's note, and I try to keep such tampering to a bare minimum. I also attempt to keep my characters true to their historical counterparts. This is not always possible, of course.
Sharon Kay Penman
#45. There's not a man alive who doesn't know fear, Dickon. The brave man is the one who has learned to hide it, that's all
Sharon Kay Penman
#46. Forget the threat of Hell's infernal flames. The true torture would condemn a man to wait and wait and wait - for an eternity
Sharon Kay Penman
#47. My novels about medieval Wales were set in unexplored terrain; my readers did not know what lay around every bend in the road.
Sharon Kay Penman
#49. For he of all men knew how dangerously stubborn Henry Fitz Empress could be.
There were faint bloodstains upon the tiles in Canterbury Cathedral testifying to that.
Sharon Kay Penman
#50. Men are born to sin ... What does matter most, is not that we err, it is that we do benefit from our mistakes, that we are capable of sincere repentance, of genuine contrition.
Sharon Kay Penman
#51. Richard forced him from his sickbed, broke his power, his pride. But you, John, you broke his heart. I truly wonder which be the greater sin.
Sharon Kay Penman
#52. Simon said nothing, thinking of all the good men who'd died because this inept, faithless fool had been born a King's son.
Sharon Kay Penman
#53. It usually takes me about three years to research and write one of my historical sagas; this is one reason why I take medieval mystery breaks, for they can be completed in only a year.
Sharon Kay Penman
#54. We've schemed and fought and loved until we are so entangled in hearts and minds that there is no way to set us free. God help us both, Harry, for we will never be rid of each other. Not even death will do that.
Sharon Kay Penman
#55. You must try to understand, my dearest one. It was not treason, was but a dream bred before its time, that the King should not be accountable only to God. No mortal man ought to be entrusted with power such as that, for any king's son may be born a fool.
Sharon Kay Penman
#56. Geoffrey looked startled to see both his great-uncles bearing down upon him with such haste; he hadn't realized men their age could move so fast.
Sharon Kay Penman
#57. You might as well face it. You're not going to be able to fight for the crown. You'll just have to grit your teeth and let us hand it over to you at the bargaining table.
Sharon Kay Penman
#58. Apparently too much candour can become tedious, or so Lady Emma tells me.
Sharon Kay Penman
#59. Autumn that year painted the countryside in vivid shades of scarlet, saffron and russet, and the days were clear and crisp under harvest skies.
Sharon Kay Penman
#60. Richard grinned, very pleased with himself for having found a way to honor his mother, thwart his father, and serve God, while having a grand adventure at the same time.
Sharon Kay Penman
#61. Tonight," he said, "we shall get quietly and thoroughly drunk ... in memory of all that was lost. And on the morrow, I begin the struggle to win it back.
Sharon Kay Penman
#62. You seem to forget, Dickon, that we are dealing with the Spider King. Louis realized, just as you have, that it would take more to mate dog to cat than a shared lust for the English crown.
Sharon Kay Penman
#63. If disliking Richard be grounds for accusing a man of conspiracy, I daresay you could implicate half of Christendom in this so-called plot. Richard endears himself easiest to those who've yet to meet him.
Sharon Kay Penman
#64. When does he ever think?" Richard straddled a chair and accepted a wind cup from Raoul. "If he were to sell his brain, he could claim it had never been used.", Chapter 7
Sharon Kay Penman
#65. Here I was, rushing off to save my little brother from pirates, only to find that he fancies being a pirate himself!
Sharon Kay Penman
#66. And it is not in any of our interests to have the balance of power turned on its head like this. An overly mighty French king is no improvement over an overly mighty English one.
Sharon Kay Penman
#67. Life without sinning was like food without salt, pure but tasteless.
Sharon Kay Penman
#70. Soldiers have many vices, but vanity is not amongst them. How could it be? What man is going to worry about his hair when he might lose his head?
Sharon Kay Penman
#71. Troubles may ofttimes be so dire that they cannot get better. But they are never so dire that they still cannot get worse.
Sharon Kay Penman
#72. In the past few months, life had lost its sweetness and he'd lost his way. But no longer. Death was once again the enemy, his indifference and apathy drowned in a Cheshire pond.
Sharon Kay Penman
#73. It was just like him, she thought; with him, a happy ending was always a foregone conclusion. But such was the power of his faith that when she was with him; she found herself believing in happy endings, too.
Sharon Kay Penman
#74. Many people don't know that New Jersey is a fertile breeding ground for writers, some of them quite renowned. And I would wager that most would be truly startled to learn that the star in the Jersey firmament is - drum roll here - Newark.
Sharon Kay Penman
#75. I certainly know all about the Jersey jokes that amuse the rest of the country. You've probably heard them. Our state bird is the mosquito. Our state tree is dead. It doesn't help that we are represented on television by Tony Soprano and 'Jersey Shore.'
Sharon Kay Penman
#76. I know you do not care much for such revelries, but trust me - this one you will enjoy, Harry. You and I will sit at the high table, eating porpoise and swan, whilst we watch my male kinfolk eating humble pie!
Sharon Kay Penman
#77. As was his way, once he acknowledged the problem, he set about finding a means to resolve it
Sharon Kay Penman
#78. Outside, the sky was clear, stars gleaming in its ebony vastness like celestial fireflies. It was bitterly cold, and Hywel's every breath trailed after him in pale puffs of smoke. The glazed snow crackled underfoot as he started towards the great hall.
Sharon Kay Penman
#79. for each age interprets the past in the light of its own biases.
Sharon Kay Penman
#80. I was actually born in New York City, but my family moved to Atlantic City when I was five, this being my dad's home town, so I think that qualifies me as a Jersey resident if not a bona fide native.
Sharon Kay Penman
#81. More than men had died at Lincoln. It seemed to Stephen that reality was a casualty, too, for nothing made sense anymore. What was he doing here in the solar of Lincoln Castle, bleeding all over the Earl of Chester's wife?
Sharon Kay Penman
#82. ... she remembered watching a summer sunset from this very spot. Not so long ago; just a lifetime.
Sharon Kay Penman
#83. Brother Euddogwy did not know how to respond to that, for only the Angevins would see a rebellion as an opportunity for brotherly bonding.
Sharon Kay Penman
#84. I've never been so hungry that I was willing to lick honey off thorns.
Sharon Kay Penman
#85. ... a cynic who was still saddened whenever his jaundiced view of mankind was confirmed ...
Sharon Kay Penman
#87. Why is it honesty when a man speaks his mind and madness when a woman does?
Sharon Kay Penman
#88. Women did not have as many options as men, and I need to reflect that reality in my mysteries.
Sharon Kay Penman
#89. When a man fell into a deep hole, it was usually a good idea to stop digging.
Sharon Kay Penman
#92. Edward was now expressing himself on the subject of the French King, drawing upon a vocabulary that a Southwark brothel-keeper might envy. Some of what he was saying was anatomically impossible, much of it was true and all of it envenomed.
Sharon Kay Penman
#93. Richard knew, of course, that his was thought to be an unlucky title; only twice before had a Richard ruled England, and both met violent ends.
Sharon Kay Penman
#96. May I offer you some advice?"
"I'd rather you offered me a fast horse and a head start," Richard said with a tight smile. "But I'll take the advice, too.
Sharon Kay Penman
#97. I do not set specific work hours as some writers do. I generally stay with a chapter until I am satisfied, do very little rewriting, and if a scene is going well, I've been known to keep night owl hours.
Sharon Kay Penman
#98. The art of governing, Dickon, is that of making use of talent wherever you do find it. Trust is too rare an attribute to make it your prime prerequisite for holding office. If I relied only upon those I truly do trust, we'd have a council of empty chairs!
Sharon Kay Penman
#99. He would never be able to emulate Richard's last gesture of defiance
gallant, glorious, and quite mad.
Sharon Kay Penman
#100. There are secret sins and found-out sins, and it is foolish to worry about the first until it becomes the second.
Sharon Kay Penman
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