Lionel Shriver Quotes - Page 2

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• But keeping secrets is a discipline. I never use to think of myself as a good liar, but after having had some practice I had adopted the prevaricator's credo that one doesn't so much fabricate a lie as marry it. A successful lie cannot be brought into this world and capriciously abandoned; like any committed relationship it must be maintained, and with far more devotion than the truth, which carries on being carelessly true without any help. By contrast, my lie needed me as much as I needed it, and so demanded the constancy of wedlock: Till death do us part.

  Lionel Shriver

  Lying, Liars, Successful

  Lionel Shriver (2011). “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, p.175, Counterpoint Press

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• My own apathy is bone chilling.

  Lionel Shriver

  Apathy, Chill, Bones

  Lionel Shriver (2011). “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, p.33, Counterpoint Press

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• We need to recognise that slowing population growth is one of the most cost-effective and reliable ways of easing pressure on our environment and securing a sustainable future for us all

  Lionel Shriver

  Growth, Population, Needs

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• I realize it's commonplace for parents to say to their child sternly, 'I love you, but I don't always like you.' But what kind of love is that? It seems to me that comes down to, 'I'm not oblivious to you - that is, you can still hurt my feelings - but I can't stand having you around.' Who wants to be loved like that? Given a choice, I might skip the deep blood tie and settle for being liked. I wonder if wouldn't have been more moved if my own mother had taken me in her arms and said, 'I like you.' I wonder if just enjoying your kid's company isn't more important.

  Lionel Shriver

  Mother, I Like You, Hurt

  Lionel Shriver (2011). “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, p.143, Counterpoint Press

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• I have no end of failings as a mother, but I have always followed the rules.

  Lionel Shriver

  Mother, Failing, Ends

  Lionel Shriver (2011). “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, p.39, Counterpoint Press

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• The good life doesn't knock on the door. Joy is a job.

  Lionel Shriver

  Jobs, Good Life, Doors

  Lionel Shriver (2011). “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, p.15, Counterpoint Press

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• Size is relative. If everyone is fat, no-one is fat

  Lionel Shriver

  Size, Fats, Relative

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• People seem to get used to anything, and it is a short step from adaptation to attachment.

  Lionel Shriver

  Attachment, People, Steps

  Lionel Shriver (2011). “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, p.159, Counterpoint Press

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• I am vain, or once was, and one of my vanities was to feign that I was not.

  Lionel Shriver

  Vanity, Vain

  Lionel Shriver (2011). “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, p.26, Counterpoint Press

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• For that matter, thinking of one's self as exceptional is probably more the rule than not.

  Lionel Shriver

  Thinking, Self, Matter

  Lionel Shriver (2011). “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, p.78, Counterpoint Press

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• The secret is that there is no secret.

  Lionel Shriver

  Secret

  Lionel Shriver (2011). “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, p.379, Counterpoint Press

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• Change is like that: you are no longer where you were; you are not yet where you will get; you are nowhere exactly.

  Lionel Shriver

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• In the particular dwells the tawdry. In the conceptual dwells the grand, the transcendent, the everlasting. Earthly countries and single malignant boys can go to hell; the idea of countries and the idea of sons triumph for eternity.

  Lionel Shriver

  Country, Son, Boys

  Lionel Shriver (2011). “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, p.88, Counterpoint Press

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• [Children] would have messed up my apartment. In the main, they are ungrateful. They would have siphoned too much time away from the writing of my precious books.

  Lionel Shriver

  Children, Book, Writing

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• Expectations are dangerous when they are both too high and unformed.

  Lionel Shriver

  Expectations, Dangerous

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• Besides, I'd heard too many Karen Carpenter tales at Gladstone PTA meetings, and they often took the form of boasts. The prestigious diagnosis of anorexia seemed much coveted not only by the students but by their mothers, who would compete over whose daughter ate less. No wonder the poor girls were a mess.

  Lionel Shriver

  Girl, Daughter, Mother

  Lionel Shriver (2011). “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, p.301, Counterpoint Press

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• The existence of other people is essentially awkward.

  Lionel Shriver

  People, Awkward, Existence

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• You can't be stylish and petty at the same time.

  Lionel Shriver

  Stylish, Petty

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• A successful lie cannot be brought into this world and capriciously abandoned; like any committed relationship, it must be maintained, and with far more devotion than the truth, which carries on being carelessly true without any help.

  Lionel Shriver

  Lying, Successful, World

  Lionel Shriver (2011). “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, p.175, Counterpoint Press

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• You can call it innocence, or you can call it gullibility, but Celia made the most common mistake of the good-hearted: she assumed that everyone else was just like her.

  Lionel Shriver

  Mistake, Like Her, Innocence

  Lionel Shriver (2010). “We Need To Talk About Kevin”, p.273, Profile Books

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• Half an ear cocked, something in me, all night, every night, is waiting for you to come home.

  Lionel Shriver

  Home, Night, Waiting

  Lionel Shriver (2011). “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, p.46, Counterpoint Press

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• When you've been afraid of something for long enough and it comes to pass, the terrible thing is a release. For in the belly of the badness there is no more fear.

  Lionel Shriver

  Long, Enough, Release

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• I thought at the time that I couldn't be horrified anymore, or wounded. I suppose that's a common conceit, that you've already been so damaged that damage itself, in its totality, makes you safe.

  Lionel Shriver

  Safe, Damage, Common

  Lionel Shriver (2011). “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, p.7, Counterpoint Press

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• Built like an oak tree, against which I could pitch my pillow and read; mornings, I could curl into the crook of your branches.

  Lionel Shriver

  Morning, Tree, Curls

  Lionel Shriver (2011). “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, p.36, Counterpoint Press

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• I am in flight from my story every day, and it dogs me like a faithful stray.

  Lionel Shriver

  Dog, Faithful, Stories

  Lionel Shriver (2011). “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, p.17, Counterpoint Press

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