Quotes from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness

Craig Stone ·  296 pages

Rating: (102 votes)


“I want to avoid people, because there’s only one thing worse than being homeless, and that’s people who are not, knowing that you are.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness


“Without the sleeping bag I'm just somebody up early in the morning, sitting under a tree. With the sleeping bag I'm nobody up early, sitting under a tree: a slight, but important difference in how I’ll be perceived.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness


“Some days I am the flower beneath the machine. And the machine rolls slowly on, blocking the sun, without a care for what it tramples beneath.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness


“We dream of the world we could have made, and wake up in the world that we did.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness


“When we’re young nothing offends us, except adults telling us what should. Then when we become adults, nothing offends us, except we are offended on behalf of our young.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness



“Nobody has to do anything wrong to end up living a life that feels like it’s not their own, all they have to do is take a step back, and hope for the best.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness


“My eyes open after my mind. All eyes always do.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness


“Smile sometimes: it won’t add years to your life, but it will add life to your years.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness


“We used to talk and smile seven days ago when I was wearing a suit. Now I'm dressed in a beard and smell of dog shit I don’t even get eye contact. I ask her how her week is going, and she looks to her friend behind the counter as if to say: I think this creep is hitting on me. Shall we call the police?”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness


“Better to live dreaming, than dream of living.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness



“The question should be who do we want to be when we grow up, not what.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness


“Sleep doesn't come easy when a broken twig conjures images of a hulking mental patient snapping the arms off children, over by the bin.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness


“The word begone is a Russian doll. A small, single word, which contains so many others; and when all the smaller words inside line up, they look like a bridge: Be Beg Ego Go On One.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness


“His smile is a stranger resting on a haunted face, only coming out for poisons turning him into a ghost.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness


“He brings the cigarette butt to his mouth and lights up. He breathes in, and coughs; a rattling helicopter with a broken blade crashing into a herd of trombone playing sheep falling off a cliff into a DIY shop with a discount on spanners.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness



“There is nothing more deceptive, more grandeur, than the delusion of a single man.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness


“Friday dusk becomes Friday evening. The park is feverish with life. A young Asian man screams into his mobile phone, not stopping to listen: a young man with his heart in his penis.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness


“I wonder if I'm being paranoid. I tell myself I'm not, and then ask myself how I can be so sure? I don’t know the answer, so I go back to wondering if I am.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness


“I don’t want to wake up. I can’t feel the cold of life. I can’t feel fear in my dreams. When awake we are green and red bits glowing under a machine, lights turn off and on, and people of science convince themselves they know what’s going on. Backs are patted, hand are shaken. Test, record, collect. They tell us what we already know. We are all dying, dying slow. When awake, there is a feeling of impending doom, and if you can’t feel it, close your eyes, or open them further. When we’re in a box underground, heaven is finally above us, but it’s not in the sky. Heaven is the planet we lived on, and all of the angels are people. Here, in a dream, it’s just me floating in the back of my mind, among parts we don’t fully understand.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness


“Blobfish, the guy who snapped a hamsters neck, myself, the homeless guy who has never thrown a punch (but has killed a fox) and Dickface, the man obsessed with trees and touching himself in public, follow an arrogant midget into the home of a pale creature I am certain will kill us all, to save the life of an ungrateful bastard parrot called Madness.
The temperature drops further.
A cold night for heroes.”
― Craig Stone, quote from The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness



About the author

Craig Stone
Born place: London, The United Kingdom
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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.