50 Important Quotes in ‘Flames’ by Robbie Arnott

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#11: They’ve been my tribe, my sisters, through all the blessings and troubles of my life.

• Techniques: Metaphor, symbolism and characterisation
• Characters: Country Women’s Association
• Chapter: Cake

#12: The closest thing to a friend he had down here. 

• Techniques: Comparison, characterisation and foreshadowing
• Characters: Allen and the Ranger
• Chapter: Grass

#13: At the touch of skin on skin… flaming tears stopped. 

• Techniques: Imagery, symbolism and contrast
• Characters: Nicola and Charlotte
• Chapter: Grass

#14: Her touch travelled through Charlotte’s heart. She had quenched the rage; she had stopped the fire. 

• Techniques: Imagery, symbolism and contrast
• Characters: Nicola and Charlotte
• Chapter: Grass

#15: The salt crust on his face was cracked open by a spreading, full toothed smile. 

• Techniques: Symbolism and imagery
• Characters: Karl and Nicola
• Chapter: Snow

#16: Levi is filled with confidence and a renewed sense of purpose. 

• Techniques: Characterisaiton, foreshadowing and imagery
• Characters: Levi and Pelt
• Chapter: Snow

#17: He had never felt more sure of himself.

• Techniques: Characterisaiton, foreshadowing and imagery
• Characters: Levi and Pelt
• Chapter: Woo

#18: He does not care about the man, not about who he is, or what he says or where he goes. 

• Techniques: Repetition, parallelism and characterisation
• Characters: Levi and Jack
• Chapter: Wood

#19: His heat not only ended life: moderately carefully, it could also nourish it.  

• Techniques: Repetition, parallelism and characterisation
• Characters: Levi and Jack
• Chapter: Coal

#20: Levi and I (Charlotte) never understood each other. 

• Techniques: Irony and paradox
• Characters: Levi and Charlotte
• Chapter: Grove

#21: Centuries of mutual, touchless adoration 

• Techniques: Imagery and metaphor
• Characters: Cloud and Esk God’s love
• Chapter: Cloud

#22: I know that between us there is love. … love built with his stubborn resolve, with my hot temper, with all the care our mother poured into us. 

• Techniques: Personification, metaphor, imagery and alliteration
• Characters: Charlotte and Levi
• Chapter: Grove

#23: I’ve always found his smile unforgettable; when I think of him it’s always the first thing I see.

• Techniques: Imagery
• Characters: Charlotte and Jack
• Chapter: Grove

#24: I have nothing to forgive. I have only trust to win back.

• Techniques:
• Characters: Levi and Charlotte
• Chapter: Sea

#25: In the end he could barely summon the energy to finish her cremation. He only managed it because he knew its what she wanted.

• Techniques: Symbolism
• Characters: Jack and Edith
• Chapter: Coal

Humanity and Nature

#26: The tears were flames, and they were coming from within Charlotte 

• Techniques: Metaphor, personification, imagery, symbolism
• Characters: Charlotte
• Chapter: Grass

#27: In spring young northmen would row out… to find the half of themselves they had been born without. 

• Techniques: Metaphor, imagery and symbolism
• Characters: McAllister’s
• Chapter: Salt

#28: Once they’d done what they came back for they trudged back to  the landscape that had re-spawned them, and we never saw them again.

• Techniques: Imagery, personification, metaphor and foreshadowing
• Characters: McAllister’s
• Chapter: Ash

#29: The salt and waves had other plans for him 

• Techniques: Symbolism, personification and foreshadowing
• Characters: Karl
• Chapters: Salt

#30: Karl tried to forget that clicking sound. But it was lodged in a hole between his ears, a backdrop to his days that he feared and hated but could not escape. 

• Techniques: Metaphor, imagery, alliteration and personification
• Characters: Karl
• Chapter: Salt

#31: This look of judgement. This look of control. This look of I need to do something; she needs my help, when really (as far as Charlotte is concerned) he is the one who needs help, because what is she doing but grieving? 

• Techniques: Imagery and irony
• Characters: Charlotte and Levi
• Chapter: Sky

#32: One of the most isolated places on Earth.

• Techniques: Superlative, hyperbole, imagery and symbolism
• Characters: Charlotte
• Chapter: Ice

#33: The sky was fat with grey clouds.

• Techniques: Symbolism
• Characters: Levi and Charlotte
• Chapter: Ice

#34: This herd of wombats is the closest thing to family that I might ever know 

• Techniques: Symbolism, simile and imagery
• Characters: Allen
• Chapter: Feather

#35: My mind was swamped by dark shadows of flying cormorants. 

• Techniques: Imagery, metaphor, personification and symbolism
• Characters: Allen, cormorants
• Chapter: Grass

#36: Forest… the origin of the man he had become, the things that had grown and nourished him. 

• Techniques: Personification, metaphor, imagery, and symbolism
• Characters: The Ranger
• Chapter: Grass

#37: He tinkered with lighting tiny sparks in their minds, sparks that persuaded them to look upon  him favorably. 

• Techniques: Metaphor, imagery, personification and alliteration
• Characters: Jack
• Chapter: Coal

#38: The flames of rage and loneliness that burn through her smirk: flames that can’t be put out. 

• Techniques: Metaphor, imagery and personification
• Characters: Charlotte and the Detective
• Chapter: Grove

#39: I am a coast person. I don’t like being hemmed by these trees. 

• Techniques: Metaphor and imagery
• Characters: Charlotte
• Chapter: Grove

Death

#40: I swore to bury her whole and still and cold 

• Techniques: Imagery, symbolism, alliteration and foreshadowing
• Characters: Levi and Charlotte
• Chapter: Ash

#41: The black patch of burnt grass in our father’s lawn glued itself into her mind. 

• Techniques: Imagery, foreshadowing, personification and symbolism
• Characters: Jack and Charlotte
• Chapter: Ash

#42: I quickly got over it. Everyone dies, even when they’re reincarnated. 

• Techniques: Irony and paradox
• Characters: Levi and Jack
• Chapter: Ash

#43: But Charlotte struggled to move on. 

• Techniques: Characterisation and foreshadowing
• Characters: Charlotte, Levi and Jack
• Chapter: Ash

#44: He suffered his biggest death of all.

• Techniques: Metaphor and hyperbole
• Characters: Jack and Edith
• Chapter: Coal

#45: Just like their Mother, they would eventually die. And he did not want to be close to them when they did.

• Techniques: Foreshadowing and irony
• Characters: Jack, Levi and Charlotte
• Chapter: Coal

The Gods

#46: Some wore fur and feathers and watched over the creatures they resembled… Some, like a blood-hungry bird spirit he encountered deep in the southwest, were cruel. Most were calm, seeking only to care for the creatures and land that they felt drawn closest to

• Techniques: Personification, imagery, symbolism and personification
• Characters: Gods
• Chapter: Coal

#47: So he continued on, soothing his rage in a simple, humble way – by nipping screws out of the hull of an idle jetski 

• Techniques: Characterisation, imagery, symbolism and irony
• Characters: Gods, the South Esk God
• Chapter: Iron

#48: No – living with humans did not work

• Techniques: Alliteration, metaphor, imagery and characterisation
• Characters: Gods
• Chapter: Coal

#49: As powerful as the Esk God was, he didn’t want to pick a fight with him (Jack). 

• Techniques: Comparison, characterisation, irony and foreshadowing
• Characters: Esk God and Jack
• Chapter: Iron

#50: The Esk God noticed how diminished their (Gods) presence was.

• Techniques: Observation, characterisation, imagery and foreshadowing
• Characters: The Esk God, Gods
• Chapter: Iron