“Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time...I don't know how persons with jobs do the jobs and all the living as well...I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter all over the world, the roads and houses and playgrounds and stores, so there's only a little smear of time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“People don't always want to be with people. It gets tiring.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“If I was made of cake I'd eat myself before somebody else could.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“Stories are a different kind of true.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“When I was a little kid I thought like a little kid, but now I'm five I know everything”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“Goodbye, Room." I wave up at Skylight. "Say goodbye," I tell Ma. "Goodbye, Room."
Ma says it but on mute.
I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened. Then we go out the door.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“I've seen the world and I'm tired now.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“I think buddy is man talk for sweetie.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“Sometimes when persons say definitely it sounds actually less true.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“People move around so much in the world, things get lost.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“I think about Old Nick carrying me into the truck, I'm dizzy like I'm going to
fall down.
"Scared is what you're feeling," says Ma, "but brave is what you're doing."
"Huh?"
"Scaredybrave."
"Scave."
Word sandwiches always make her laugh but I wasn't being funny.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“The world is always changing brightness and hotness and soundness, I never know how it's going to be the next minute.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“[E]verywhere I'm looking at kids, adults mostly don't seem to like them, not even the parents do. They call the kids gorgeous and so cute, they make the kids do the thing all over again so they can take a photo, but they don't want to actually play with them, they'd rather drink coffee talking to other adults. Sometimes there's a small kid crying and the Ma of it doesn't even hear.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“This is a bad story.”
“Sorry. I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have told you.”
“No, you should,” I say.
“But—”
“I don’t want there to be bad stories and me not know them.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“I remember manners, that's when people are scared to make other persons mad.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“When I tell her what I’m thinking and she tells me what she’s thinking, our each ideas jumping into the other’s head, like coulouring blue crayon on top of yellow that makes green.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“It’s called mind over matter. If we don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” When a bit of me hurts, I always mind.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“A lot of the world seems to repeat itself”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time. Even Grandma often says that, but she and Steppa don't have jobs, so I don't know how persons with jobs do the jobs and all the living as well. In Room me and Ma had time for everything. I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter over all the world, the roads and houses and playgrounds and stores, so there's only a little smear of time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit.
Also everywhere I'm looking at kids, adults mostly don't seem to like them, not even the parents do. They call the kids gorgeous and so cute, they make the kids do the thing all over again so they can take a photo, but they don't want to actually play with them, they'd rather drink coffee talking to other adults. Sometimes there's a small kid crying and the Ma of it doesn't even hear.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“Me and Ma have a deal, we're going to try everything one time so we know what we like.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“There's not a thing wrong with you, you're right the whole way through.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“Maybe I’m a human, but I’m a me-and-Ma as well.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“When I was four I thought everything in TV was just TV, then I was five and Ma unlied about lots of it being pictures of real and Outside being totally real. Now I’m in Outside but it turns out lots of it isn’t real at all.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“You know who you belong to, Jack?”
“Yeah.”
“Yourself.”
He’s wrong, actually, I belong to Ma.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“Outside has everything. Whenever I think of a thing now like skis or fireworks or islands or elevators or yo-yos, I have to remember they're real, they're actually happening in Outside all together. It makes my head tired. And people too, firefighters teachers burglars babies saints soccer players and all sorts, they're all really in Outside. I'm not there, though, me and Ma, we're the only ones not there. Are we still real?”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
“Ma's still nodding. "You're the one who matters, though. Just you."
I shake my head till it's wobbling because there's no just me.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Room
Emma Donoghue
Born place: in Dublin, Ireland
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“All these skills I've taught you--they're burdens. Not gifts. Taking a life takes something from me. When you choose to kill, make sure it is for the right reasons. Make sure the decision is something you can live with.”
― Ryan Graudin, quote from Blood for Blood
“That’s the trouble with not being in your own field: You don’t take it seriously.”
― Richard Feynman, quote from Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character
“The pasta had a consistency somewhere between soggy paper and rubber eggs, with a taste combining the best of each. The sauce tasted like glue flavored with lemonade.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., quote from The Parafaith War
“When you read the account of a murder - or, say, a fiction story based on murder - you usually begin with the murder itself. That's all wrong. The murder begins a long time beforehand. A murder is the culmination of a lot of different circumstances, all converging at a given moment at a given point. People are brought into it from different parts of the globe and for unforeseen reasons. [...] The murder itself is the end of the story. It's Zero Hour.”
He paused.
“It's Zero Hour now.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from Towards Zero
“I was young but I hated like a middle-aged man at the end of his prime.”
― Nnedi Okorafor, quote from Who Fears Death
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