Cloud Atlas

by

David Mitchell

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Cloud Atlas makes teaching easy.
Luisa Ray is the protagonist of “Half-Lives,” a detective novel manuscript that Timothy Cavendish receives. She is a 26-year-old journalist who writes a gossip column but who dreams of writing more serious stories like her father, the renowned Vietnam correspondent Lester Rey. She is one of the characters with a comet birthmark. Luisa gets her opportunity for a big story when the scientist Rufus Sixsmith reveals to her that a planned nuclear plant on Swannekke Island carries a serious risk of disaster. After hired assassin Bill Smoke murders Rufus as part of the cover-up, Luisa spends much of the story searching for a report from Rufus that details all the nuclear plant’s problems. Meanwhile, a nefarious group of people associated with Seaboard Power all try to stop or even kill her before she can get her story to print. Luisa’s story demonstrates both the danger and necessity of telling the truth, as she ultimately triumphs over forces much bigger than herself by stopping the construction of the dangerous nuclear plant—but only after overcoming serious threats to her own life.

Luisa Rey Quotes in Cloud Atlas

The Cloud Atlas quotes below are all either spoken by Luisa Rey or refer to Luisa Rey. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Cycles of History Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

She plays with that birthmark in the hollow of my shoulder, the one you said resembles a comet—can’t abide the woman dabbling with my skin.

Related Characters: Robert Frobisher (speaker), Luisa Rey, Timothy Cavendish, Sonmi~451, Meronym, Rufus Sixsmith, Vyvyan Ayrs, Jocasta van Outryve de Crommelynck
Related Symbols: The Comet Birthmark
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

Robert Frobisher mentions a comet-shaped birthmark between his shoulder blade and collarbone.

I just don’t believe in this crap. I just don’t believe it. I don’t.

Related Characters: Luisa Rey (speaker), Adam Ewing, Robert Frobisher, Rufus Sixsmith
Related Symbols: The Comet Birthmark
Page Number: 120
Explanation and Analysis:

He yanks the wheel sharply, and metal screams as the Beetle is sandwiched between his car and the bridge railing until the railing unzips from its concrete and the Beetle lurches out into space.

Related Characters: Luisa Rey, Rufus Sixsmith, Bill Smoke
Page Number: 141
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

We see a game beyond the endgame. I refer to my Declarations, Archivist. Media has flooded Nea So Copros with my Catechisms. Every schoolchild in corpocracy knows my twelve “blasphemies” now.

Related Characters: Sonmi~451 (speaker), Luisa Rey, Zachry Bailey, The Archivist, Hae-Joo Im, Boardman Mephi
Page Number: 349
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

“I ask three simple questions. How did he get that power? How is he using it? And how can it be taken off the sonofabitch?”

Related Characters: Luisa Rey (speaker), Dr. Henry Goose
Page Number: 403
Explanation and Analysis:

Seaboardgate is no longer her scoop. Swannekke swarms with reporters, Senate investigators, FBI agents, county police, and Hollywood scriptwriters. Swannekke B is in mothballs; C is suspended.

Related Characters: Luisa Rey, Joe Napier, Lloyd Hooks, William Wiley
Page Number: 435
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Spent the fortnight gone in the music room, reworking my year’s fragments into a “sextet for overlapping soloists”: piano, clarinet, ‘cello, flute, oboe, and violin, each in its own language of key, scale, and color. In the first set, each solo is interrupted by its successor: in the second, each interruption is recontinued, in order. Revolutionary or gimmicky? Shan’t know until it’s finished, and by then it’ll be too late, but it’s the first thing I think of when I wake, and the last thing I think of before I fall asleep.

Related Characters: Robert Frobisher (speaker), Luisa Rey
Related Symbols: The Comet Birthmark
Page Number: 445
Explanation and Analysis:
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Cloud Atlas PDF

Luisa Rey Quotes in Cloud Atlas

The Cloud Atlas quotes below are all either spoken by Luisa Rey or refer to Luisa Rey. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Cycles of History Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

She plays with that birthmark in the hollow of my shoulder, the one you said resembles a comet—can’t abide the woman dabbling with my skin.

Related Characters: Robert Frobisher (speaker), Luisa Rey, Timothy Cavendish, Sonmi~451, Meronym, Rufus Sixsmith, Vyvyan Ayrs, Jocasta van Outryve de Crommelynck
Related Symbols: The Comet Birthmark
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

Robert Frobisher mentions a comet-shaped birthmark between his shoulder blade and collarbone.

I just don’t believe in this crap. I just don’t believe it. I don’t.

Related Characters: Luisa Rey (speaker), Adam Ewing, Robert Frobisher, Rufus Sixsmith
Related Symbols: The Comet Birthmark
Page Number: 120
Explanation and Analysis:

He yanks the wheel sharply, and metal screams as the Beetle is sandwiched between his car and the bridge railing until the railing unzips from its concrete and the Beetle lurches out into space.

Related Characters: Luisa Rey, Rufus Sixsmith, Bill Smoke
Page Number: 141
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

We see a game beyond the endgame. I refer to my Declarations, Archivist. Media has flooded Nea So Copros with my Catechisms. Every schoolchild in corpocracy knows my twelve “blasphemies” now.

Related Characters: Sonmi~451 (speaker), Luisa Rey, Zachry Bailey, The Archivist, Hae-Joo Im, Boardman Mephi
Page Number: 349
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

“I ask three simple questions. How did he get that power? How is he using it? And how can it be taken off the sonofabitch?”

Related Characters: Luisa Rey (speaker), Dr. Henry Goose
Page Number: 403
Explanation and Analysis:

Seaboardgate is no longer her scoop. Swannekke swarms with reporters, Senate investigators, FBI agents, county police, and Hollywood scriptwriters. Swannekke B is in mothballs; C is suspended.

Related Characters: Luisa Rey, Joe Napier, Lloyd Hooks, William Wiley
Page Number: 435
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Spent the fortnight gone in the music room, reworking my year’s fragments into a “sextet for overlapping soloists”: piano, clarinet, ‘cello, flute, oboe, and violin, each in its own language of key, scale, and color. In the first set, each solo is interrupted by its successor: in the second, each interruption is recontinued, in order. Revolutionary or gimmicky? Shan’t know until it’s finished, and by then it’ll be too late, but it’s the first thing I think of when I wake, and the last thing I think of before I fall asleep.

Related Characters: Robert Frobisher (speaker), Luisa Rey
Related Symbols: The Comet Birthmark
Page Number: 445
Explanation and Analysis: