14 Quotes by Joan G. Robinson

Sometimes the gulls came nearer, screaming noisily as they quarreled over small fish in the pools, and sometimes they cried mournfully far away along the beach. Then Anna felt like crying too – not actually, but quietly – inside. They made a sad, and beautiful, and long-ago sound that seemed to remind her of something lovely she had once known – and lost, and never found again. But she did not know what it was.

They sat so still that each of them might have been alone.

Didn’t you know, you’re my secret?

Anna turned away abruptly. “You needn’t bother,” she said. But the girl held her back. “No, don’t go! Don’t be such a goose. I want to know you! Don’t you want to know me?

She knew perfectly well that things like parties and best friends and going to tea with people were fine for everyone else, because everyone else was “inside” – inside some sort of invisible magic circle. But Anna herself was outside. And so these things had nothing to do with her. It was as simple as that.