Kate Atkinson · 400 pages
Rating: (30.2K votes)
“Oh, God. What was happening to her, she was turning into a normal person.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“A coincidence is just an explanation waiting to happen”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“Just because something bad had happened to her doesn't mean it won't happen again.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“It wasn't fair, he thought peevishly. "Who said life was fair?" his father had said to him a hundred times. He had said the same himself to his own daughter. ("It's not fair, Daddy.") Parents were miserable buggers. It SHOULD be fair. It should be paradise.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“Fine,’ she said, using the universal Scottish word for every state of being from ‘I’m dying in anguish’ to ‘I’m experiencing euphoric joy.’ ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘I’m fine.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“Louise was an urbanite, she preferred the gut-thrilling sound of an emergency siren slicing through the night to the noise of country birds at dawn. Pub brawls, rackety roadworks, mugged tourists, the badlands on a Saturday night - they all made sense, they were all part of the huge, dirty, torn social fabric. There was a war raging out there in the city and she was part of the fight, but the countryside unsettled her because she didn't know who the enemy was. She had always preferred North and South to Wuthering Heights. All that demented running around the moors, identifying yourself with the scenery, not a good role model for a woman.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“It was funny because she thought of herself as a good team player, although sometimes she suspected that no one else on her team did.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“First things were good, last things not so much so.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“A man with an Irish accent could sound wise and poetic and interesting even when he wasn’t.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“How wonderfully, joyously, untrammeled he had been then in his happiness. She thought it was fixed for ever, she didn't realize that childhood happiness dissolves away. If she had realized that Archie wasn't going to be that sunny innocent child for ever she would have laid up every moment as treasure.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“She didnt see the point of alcohol, or drugs. People had little enough control over their lives without losing more.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“Why make it easy when you could make it as difficult for yourself as possible? She was a woman, so, technically speaking, she could do anything.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“I don't actually live here," Reggie said.
"Who does live here then?"
"Ms. MacDonald, except that she doesn't because she's dead. Everyone's dead."
"I'm not," Jackson said. "You're not.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“every increased possession loads us with weariness, and he’s right.” There”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“Mum had worshipped Princess Di and frequently lamented her passing. “Gone,” she would say, shaking her head in disbelief. “Just like that. All that exercise for nothing.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“Life’s random,” he said. “The best you can do is pick up the pieces.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“Love. Love wasn’t sweet and light, it was visceral and overpowering. Love wasn’t patient, love wasn’t kind. Love was ferocious, love knew how to play dirty.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from When Will There Be Good News?
“But I hoped he couldn’t read my mind. No one needed to know that. Not even him. He chuckled, again. “That is to be decided by your actions, Phoenix. Not by your thoughts.”
― Nnedi Okorafor, quote from The Book of Phoenix
“Money’s supposed to fix problems, not give you more, but I guess life ain’t that straightforward.”
― Erin Bowman, quote from Vengeance Road
“You were on the fucking beach in my bikini with him. I just assumed something was going on.” Her eyes widened. “Your bikini?” Perhaps it was a Freudian slip, but I owned up to it. “Yes. My fucking bikini.” In that moment, it was like my inhibitions just snapped. Running my thumb along the slightly burned skin below her neck, I said exactly what I was thinking. “It’s my bikini because every inch of the body inside of it belongs to me, whether you want that to be the case or not. I know how that struggle feels because it’s no different for me. As much as I would give anything to want someone else right now, my body only wants you. And quite frankly, Bridget, it’s not going to rest until it has you.”
― Penelope Ward, quote from Dear Bridget, I Want You
“It would be so nice to be wanted by someone with the courage to get his hat or stay as he damn pleased, and who gave her credit for the same. Someone who didn't worry about her.”
― Thomas Harris, quote from Red Dragon:
“We only get to be in our bodies for a limited time, why not celebrate the journey instead of merely riding it out until it’s over?”
― Jen Sincero, quote from You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life
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