Twilight is currently my favorite guilty pleasure. I did 2 blog entries already of my favorite movie quotes, so I thought I’d go ahead and write 2 more entries on my favorite book quotes. Here are my favorites from chapters 13 to 23. You can check out part 1 here.
—-
Here’s part of the pivotal conversation between Edward and Bella at the meadow. I’m glad nearly the entire scene was showed in the movie.
But I couldn’t answer. As I had just that once before, I smelled his cool breath in my face. Sweet, delicious, the scent made my mouth water. It was unlike anything else. Instinctively, unthinkingly, I leaned closer, inhaling.
And he was gone, his hand ripped from mine. In the time it took my eyes to focus, he was twenty feet away, standing at the edge of the small meadow, in the deep shade of a huge fir tree. He stared at me, his eyes dark in the shadows, his expression unreadable.
I could feel the hurt and shock on my face. My empty hands stung.
“I’m… sorry… Edward,” I whispered. I knew he could hear.
“Give me a moment,” he called, just loud enough for my less sensitive ears. I sat very still.
After ten incredibly long seconds, he walked back, slowly for him. He stopped, still several feet away, and sank gracefully to the ground, crossing his legs. His eyes never left mine. He took two deep breaths, and then smiled in apology.
“I am so very sorry.” He hesitated. “Would you understand what I meant if I said I was only human?”
I nodded once, not quite able to smile at his joke. Adrenaline pulsed through my veins as the realization of danger slowly sank in. He could smell that from where he sat. His smile turned mocking.
“I’m the world’s best predator, aren’t I? Everything about me invites you in – my voice, my face, even my smell. As if I need any of that!” Unexpectedly, he was on his feet, bounding away, instantly out of sight, only to appear beneath the same tree as before, having circled the meadow in half a second.
“As if you could outrun me,” he laughed bitterly.
He reached up with one hand and, with a deafening crack, effortlessly ripped a two-foot-thick branch from the trunk of the spruce. He balanced it in that hand for a moment, and then threw it with blinding speed, shattering it against another huge tree, which shook and trembled at the blow.
And he was in front of me again, standing two feet away, still as a stone.
“As if you could fight me off,” he said gently.
I sat without moving, more frightened of him than I had ever been. I’d never seen him so completely freed of that carefully cultivated facade. He’d never been less human… or more beautiful. Face ashen, eyes wide, I sat like a bird locked in the eyes of a snake.
—-
Here’s another part of their meadow conversation, containing the heroin quote.
“You see, every person smells different, has a different essence. If you locked an alcoholic in a room full of stale beer, he’d gladly drink it. But he could resist, if he wished to, if he were a recovering alcoholic. Now let’s say you placed in that room a glass of hundred-year-old brandy, the rarest, finest cognac – and filled the room with its warm aroma – how do you think he would fare then?”
We sat silently, looking into each other’s eyes – trying to read each other’s thoughts.
He broke the silence first.
“Maybe that’s not the right comparison. Maybe it would be too easy to turn down the brandy. Perhaps I should have made our alcoholic a heroin addict instead.”
“So what you’re saying is, I’m your brand of heroin?” I teased, trying to lighten the mood.
He smiled swiftly, seeming to appreciate my effort. “Yes, you are exactly my brand of heroin.”
—-
Here’s another part of their meadow conversation, where Bella first found out how Edward travelled in the forest.
“I’ll show you how I travel in the forest.” He saw my expression. “Don’t worry, you’ll be very safe, and we’ll get to your truck much faster.” His mouth twitched up into that crooked smile so beautiful my heart nearly stopped.
“Will you turn into a bat?” I asked warily.
—-
Here’s a funny conversation when Edward admitted having visited Bella while she was sleeping. In hindsight – it’s actually quite creepy.
“How often?” I asked casually.
“Hmmm?” He sounded as if I had pulled him from some other train of thought.
I still didn’t turn around. “How often did you come here?”
“I come here almost every night.”
I whirled, stunned. “Why?”
“You’re interesting when you sleep.” He spoke matter-of-factly. “You talk.”
“No!” I gasped, heat flooding my face all the way to my hairline. I gripped the kitchen counter for support. I knew I talked in my sleep, of course; my mother teased me about it. I hadn’t thought it was something I needed to worry about here, though.
His expression shifted instantly to chagrin. “Are you very angry with me?”
“That depends!” I felt and sounded like I’d had the breath knocked out of me.
He waited.
“On?” he urged.
“What you heard!” I wailed.
Instantly, silently, he was at my side, taking my hands carefully in his.
“Don’t be upset!” he pleaded. He dropped his face to the level of my eyes, holding my gaze. I was embarrassed. I tried to look away. “You miss your mother,” he whispered. “You worry about her. And when it rains, the sound makes you restless. You used to talk about home a lot, but it’s less often now. Once you said, ‘It’s too green.'” He laughed softly, hoping, I could see, not to offend me further.
“Anything else?” I demanded.
He knew what I was getting at. “You did say my name,” he admitted.
I sighed in defeat. “A lot?”
“How much do you mean by ‘a lot,’ exactly?”
“Oh no!” I hung my head.
He pulled me against his chest, softly, naturally.
“Don’t be self-conscious,” he whispered in my ear. “If I could dream at all, it would be about you. And I’m not ashamed of it.”
—-
Here’s an interesting conversation during Edward’s first night at Bella’s room (with Bella knowing that he was there).
“You seem more… optimistic than usual,” I observed. “I haven’t seen you like this before.”
“Isn’t it supposed to be like this?” He smiled. “The glory of first love, and all that. It’s incredible, isn’t it, the difference between reading about something, seeing it in the pictures, and experiencing it?”
“Very different,” I agreed. “More forceful than I’d imagined.”
“For example” – his words flowed swiftly now, I had to concentrate to catch it all – “the emotion of jealousy. I’ve read about it a hundred thousand times, seen actors portray it in a thousand different plays and movies. I believed I understood that one pretty clearly. But it shocked me…” He grimaced. “Do you remember the day that Mike asked you to the dance?”
I nodded, though I remembered that day for a different reason. “The day you started talking to me again.”
“I was surprised by the flare of resentment, almost fury, that I felt – I didn’t recognize what it was at first. I was even more aggravated than usual that I couldn’t know what you were thinking, why you refused him. Was it simply for your friend’s sake? Was there someone else? I knew I had no right to care either way. I tried not to care.
“And then the line started forming,” he chuckled. I scowled in the darkness.
“I waited, unreasonably anxious to hear what you would say to them, to watch your expressions. I couldn’t deny the relief I felt, watching the annoyance on your face. But I couldn’t be sure.
“That was the first night I came here. I wrestled all night, while watching you sleep, with the chasm between what I knew was right, moral, ethical, and what I wanted. I knew that if I continued to ignore you as I should, or if I left for a few years, till you were gone, that someday you would say yes to Mike, or someone like him. It made me angry.
“And then,” he whispered, “as you were sleeping, you said my name. You spoke so clearly, at first I thought you’d woken. But you rolled over restlessly and mumbled my name once more, and sighed. The feeling that coursed through me then was unnerving, staggering. And I knew I couldn’t ignore you any longer.” He was silent for a moment, probably listening to the suddenly uneven pounding of my heart.
“But jealousy… it’s a strange thing. So much more powerful than I would have thought. And irrational! Just now, when Charlie asked you about that vile Mike Newton…” He shook his head angrily.
“I should have known you’d be listening,” I groaned.
“Of course.”
“That made you feel jealous, though, really?”
“I’m new at this; you’re resurrecting the human in me, and everything feels stronger because it’s fresh.”
—-
Edward’s quote below is fraught with religious implications. However, I don’t really want to go into that, but this really reminded me of a line from William Blake’s poem “The Tiger” – “Did He who made the Lamb make thee?”
“Well, where did you come from? Evolution? Creation? Couldn’t we have evolved in the same way as other species, predator and prey? Or, if you don’t believe that all this world could have just happened on its own, which is hard for me to accept myself, is it so hard to believe that the same force that created the delicate angelfish with the shark, the baby seal and the killer whale, could create both our kinds together?”
—-
I really like this part, because Edward tried to explain his reasons for resisting temptation.
I sifted through my questions for the most vital. “Why do you do it?” I said. “I still don’t understand how you can work so hard to resist what you… are. Please don’t misunderstand, of course I’m glad that you do. I just don’t see why you would bother in the first place.”
He hesitated before answering. “That’s a good question, and you are not the first one to ask it. The others – the majority of our kind who are quite content with our lot – they, too, wonder at how we live. But you see, just because we’ve been… dealt a certain hand… it doesn’t mean that we can’t choose to rise above – to conquer the boundaries of a destiny that none of us wanted. To try to retain whatever essential humanity we can.”
—-
This is a very sweet scene during Edward’s first morning at Bella’s room, and she asked him about her sleep-talking.
I groaned. “What did you hear?”
His gold eyes grew very soft. “You said you loved me.”
“You knew that already,” I reminded him, ducking my head.
“It was nice to hear, just the same.”
I hid my face against his shoulder.
“I love you,” I whispered.
“You are my life now,” he answered simply.
—-
Here’s a funny part.
“Breakfast time,” he said eventually, casually – to prove, I’m sure, that he remembered all my human frailties.
So I clutched my throat with both hands and stared at him with wide eyes. Shock crossed his face.
“Kidding!” I snickered. “And you said I couldn’t act!”
He frowned in disgust. “That wasn’t funny.”
“It was very funny, and you know it.” But I examined his gold eyes carefully, to make sure that I was forgiven. Apparently, I was.
“Shall I rephrase?” he asked. “Breakfast time for the human.”
—-
I love how this part was included in the movie, even though it wasn’t verbatim.
“And you’re worried, not because you’re headed to meet a houseful of vampires, but because you think those vampires won’t approve of you, correct?”
“That’s right,” I answered immediately, hiding my surprise at his casual use of the word.
He shook his head. “You’re incredible.”
—-
I would have loved to see this in the movie, but at least the line “You really shouldn’t have said that” was included.
“I hate to burst your bubble, but you’re really not as scary as you think you are. I don’t find you scary at all, actually,” I lied casually.
He stopped, raising his eyebrows in blatant disbelief. Then he flashed a wide, wicked smile.
“You really shouldn’t have said that,” he chuckled.
He growled, a low sound in the back of his throat; his lips curled back over his perfect teeth. His body shifted suddenly, half-crouched, tensed like a lion about to pounce.
I backed away from him, glaring.
“You wouldn’t.”
I didn’t see him leap at me – it was much too fast. I only found myself suddenly airborne, and then we crashed onto the sofa, knocking it into the wall. All the while, his arms formed an iron cage of protection around me – I was barely jostled. But I still was gasping as I tried to right myself.
He wasn’t having that. He curled me into a ball against his chest, holding me more securely than iron chains. I glared at him in alarm, but he seemed well in control, his jaw relaxed as he grinned, his eyes bright only with humor.
“You were saying?” he growled playfully.
“That you are a very, very terrifying monster,” I said, my sarcasm marred a bit by my breathless voice.
“Much better,” he approved.
—-
I really like both Alice and Jasper, especially how they soothed Bella in this scene.
Jasper was suddenly beside Alice, closer to me than usual.
“Bella,” he said in a suspiciously soothing voice. “You have nothing to worry about. You are completely safe here.”
“I know that.”
“Then why are you frightened?” he asked, confused. He might feel the tenor of my emotions, but he couldn’t read the reasons behind them.
“You heard what Laurent said.” My voice was just a whisper, but I was sure they could hear me. “He said James was lethal. What if something goes wrong, and they get separated? If something happens to any of them, Carlisle, Emmett… Edward…” I gulped. “If that wild female hurts Esme…” My voice had grown higher, a note of hysteria beginning to rise in it. “How could I live with myself when it’s my fault? None of you should be risking yourselves for me -“
“Bella, Bella, stop,” he interrupted me, his words pouring out so quickly they were hard to understand. “You’re worrying about all the wrong things, Bella. Trust me on this – none of us are in jeopardy. You are under too much strain as it is; don’t add to it with wholly unnecessary worries. Listen to me!” he ordered, for I had looked away. “Our family is strong. Our only fear is losing you.”
“But why should you -“
Alice interrupted this time, touching my cheek with her cold fingers. “It’s been almost a century that Edward’s been alone. Now he’s found you. You can’t see the changes that we see, we who have been with him for so long. Do you think any of us want to look into his eyes for the next hundred years if he loses you?”
—-
Here’s an interesting conversation between Edward and Bella at the hospital.
“How did you do it?” I asked quietly. He knew what I meant at once.
“I’m not sure.” He looked away from my wondering eyes, lifting my gauze-wrapped hand from the bed and holding it gently in his, careful not to disrupt the wire connecting me to one of the monitors.
I waited patiently for the rest.
He sighed without returning my gaze. “It was impossible… to stop,” he whispered. “Impossible. But I did.” He looked up finally, with half a smile. “I must love you.”
“Don’t I taste as good as I smell?” I smiled in response. That hurt my face.
“Even better – better than I’d imagined.”
—-
Here’s another light-hearted banter between Edward and Bella, which I sort of missed in the movie. Sometimes Edward and Bella were too intense.
I tried to reach his face with my free hand, but something stopped me. I glanced down to see the IV pulling at my hand.
“Ugh.” I winced.
“What is it?” he asked anxiously – distracted, but not enough. The bleakness did not entirely leave his eyes.
“Needles,” I explained, looking away from the one in my hand. I concentrated on a warped ceiling tile and tried to breathe deeply despitet the ache in my ribs.
“Afraid of a needle,” he muttered to himself under his breath, shaking his head. “Oh, a sadistic vampire, intent on torturing her to death, sure, no problem, she runs off to meet him. An IV, on the other hand…”
—-
This part seems to be a foreshadowing of some sorts to the events that would happen in New Moon.
“Why did you say that?” I whispered, trying to keep my voice from shaking. “Are you tired of having to save me all the time? Do you want me to go away?”
“No, I don’t want to be without you, Bella, of course not. Be rational. And I have no problem with saving you, either – if it weren’t for the fact that I was the one putting you in danger… that I’m the reason that you’re here.”
“Yes, you are the reason.” I frowned. “The reason I’m here – alive.”
“Barely.” His voice was just a whisper. “Covered in gauze and plaster and hardly able to move.”
“I wasn’t referring to my most recent near-death experience,” I said, growing irritated. “I was thinking of the others – you can take your pick. If it weren’t for you, I would be rotting away in the Forks cemetery.”
He winced at my words, but the haunted look didn’t leave his eyes.
“That’s not the worst part, though,” he continued to whisper. He acted as if I hadn’t spoken. “Not seeing you there on the floor… crumpled and broken.” His voice was choked. “Not thinking I was too late. Not even hearing you scream in pain – all those unbearable memories that I’ll carry with me for the rest of eternity. No, the very worst was feeling… knowing that I couldn’t stop. Believing that I was going to kill you myself.”
“But you didn’t.”
“I could have. So easily.”
—-
This part seems a bit like a forehsadowing of Alice’s future role as Bella’s best girlfriend and head vampire of all things related to cosmetics and fashion.
“I’m not coming over anymore if Alice is going to treat me like Guinea Pig Barbie when I do,” I griped. I’d spent the better part of the day in Alice’s staggeringly vast bathroom, a helpless victim as she played hairdresser and cosmetician. Whenever I fidgeted or complained, she reminded me that she didn’t have any memories of being human, and asked me not to ruin her vicarious fun.
—-
I thought this was really funny… and sweet (for Bella that is, not for Tyler).
Something Charlie was saying made Edward’s eyes widen in disbelief, and then a grin spread across his face.
“You’re kidding!” He laughed.
“What is it?” I demanded.
He ignored me. “Why don’t you let me talk to him?” Edward suggested with evident pleasure. He waited for a few seconds.
“Hello, Tyler, this is Edward Cullen.” His voice was very friendly, on the surface. I knew it well enough to catch the soft edge of menace. What was Tyler doing at my house? The awful truth began to dawn on me. I looked again at the inappropriate dress Alice had forced me into.
“I’m sorry if there’s been some kind of miscommunication, but Bella is unavailable tonight.” Edward’s tone changed, and the threat in his voice was suddenly much more evident as he continued. “To be perfectly honest, she’ll be unavailable every night, as far as anyone besides myself is concerned. No offense. And I’m sorry about your evening.” He didn’t sound sorry at all. And then he snapped the phone shut, a huge smirk on his face.
—-
I don’t think the other Cullens were shown at the prom in the movie. I would have loved to see how their outfits as described here would look.
In Phoenix, they held proms in hotel ballrooms. This dance was in the gym, of course. It was probably the only room in town big enough for a dance. When we got inside, I giggled. There were actual balloon arches and twisted garlands of pastel crepe paper festooning the walls.
“This looks like a horror movie waiting to happen,” I snickered.
“Well,” he muttered as we slowly approached the ticket table – he was carrying most of my weight, but I still had to shuffle and wobble my feet forward – “there are more than enough vampires present.”
I looked at the dance floor; a wide gap had formed in the center of the floor, where two couples whirled gracefully. The other dancers pressed to the sides of the room to give them space – no one wanted to stand in contrast with such radiance. Emmett and Jasper were intimidating and flawless in classic tuxedos. Alice was striking in a black satin dress with geometric cutouts that bared large triangles of her snowy white skin. And Rosalie was… well, Rosalie. She was beyond belief. Her vivid scarlet dress was backless, tight to her calves where it flared into a wide ruffled train, with a neckline that plunged to her waist. I pitied every girl in the room, myself included.
“Do you want me to bolt the doors so you can massacre the unsuspecting townsfolk?” I whispered conspiratorially.
“And where do you fit into that scheme?” He glared.
“Oh, I’m with the vampires, of course.”
—-
I thought Jacob was pretty funny here. I’ll never be a Jacob fan, but sometimes I understand his appeal. Sometimes.
“Hey, I’m sorry you had to come do this, Jacob,” I apologized. “At any rate, you get your parts, right?”
“Yeah,” he muttered. He was still looking awkward… upset.
“There’s more?” I asked in disbelief.
“Forget it,” he mumbled, “I’ll get a job and save the money myself.”
I glared at him until he met my gaze. “Just spit it out, Jacob.”
“It’s so bad.”
“I don’t care. Tell me,” I insisted.
“Okay… but, geez, this sounds bad.” He shook his head. “He said to tell you, no, to warn you, that – and this is his plural, not mine” – he lifted one hand from my waist and made little quotations marks in the air – ‘”We’ll be watching.'” He watched warily for my reaction.
It sounded like something from a mafia movie. I laughed out loud.
—-
I’m including this again because the word “twilight” was mentioned.
“Twilight, again,” he murmured. “Another ending. No matter how perfect the day is, it always has to end.”
“Some things don’t have to end,” I muttered through my teeth, instantly tense.
He ignored me, staring up at the moon.
—-
Well, the word “twilight” was mentioned again, and part of this was included in the movie.
He sighed deeply. “I know. And you’re really that willing?”
The pain was back in his eyes. I bit my lip and nodded.
“So ready for this to be the end,” he murmured, almost to himself, “for this to be the twilight of your life, though your life has barely started. You’re ready to give up everything.”
“It’s not the end, it’s the beginning,” I disagreed under my breath.
“I’m not worth it,” he said sadly.
“Do you remember when you told me that I didn’t see myself very clearly?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. “You obviously have the same blindness.”
“I know what I am.”
I sighed.
But his mercurial mood shifted on me. He pursed his lips, and his eyes were probing. He examined my face for a long moment.
“You’re ready now, then?” he asked.
“Um.” I gulped. “Yes?”
He smiled, and inclined his head slowly until his cold lips brushed against the skin just under the corner of my jaw.
“Right now?” he whispered, his breath blowing cool on my neck. I shivered involuntarily.
“Yes,” I whispered, so my voice wouldn’t have a chance to break. If he thought I was bluffing, he was going to be disappointed. I’d already made this decision, and I was sure. It didn’t matter that my body was rigid as a plank, my hands balled into fists, my breathing erratic…
He chuckled darkly, and leaned away. His face did look disappointed.
“You can’t really believe that I would give in so easily,” he said with a sour edge to his mocking tone.
“A girl can dream.”
His eyebrows rose. “Is that what you dream about? Being a monster?”
“Not exactly,” I said, frowning at his word choice. Monster, indeed. “Mostly I dream about being with you forever.”
His expression changed, softened and saddened by the subtle ache in my voice.
“Bella.” His fingers lightly traced the shape of my lips. “I will stay with you – isn’t that enough?”
I smiled under his fingertips. “Enough for now.”
Sunny Feels 