Quotes from When Will There Be Good News?

“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?

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“There is a cop who is both prowler and father:
he comes from your block, grew up with your brothers,
had certain ideals.
You hardly know him in his boots and silver badge,
on horseback, one hand touching his gun.

You hardly know him but you have to get to know him:
he has access to machinery that could kill you.
He and his stallion clop like warlords among the trash,
his ideals stand in the air, a frozen cloud
from between his unsmiling lips.

And so, when the time comes, you have to turn to him,
the maniac’s sperm still greasing your thighs,
your mind whirling like crazy. You have to confess
to him, you are guilty of the crime
of having been forced.

And you see his blue eyes, the blue eyes of all the family
whom you used to know, grow narrow and glisten,
his hand types out the details
and he wants them all
but the hysteria in your voice pleases him best.

You hardly know him but now he thinks he knows you:
he has taken down you worst moment
on a machine and filed it in a file.
He knows, or thinks he knows, how much you imagined;
he knows, or thinks he knows, what you secretly wanted.

He has access to machinery that could get you put away;
and if, in the sickening light of the precinct,
and if, in the sickening light of the precinct,
your details sound like a portrait of your confessor,
will you swallow, will you deny them, will you lie your way home?”
― Adrienne Rich, quote from Diving Into the Wreck

“This talk went in at one ear and out at the other, for a boy who spends his life eating and sleeping does not worry about anything till it actually stares him in the face. But, one year, Baloo's words came true, and Mowgli saw all the Jungle working under the Law.”
― Rudyard Kipling, quote from The Second Jungle Book

“Still a dreamer, yet more of a realist than ever before, I knew this was my time to sail. On the horizon I saw the shining future, as before. The difference now was that I felt the wind at my back. I was ready.”
― Chris Gardner, quote from The Pursuit of Happyness

“I can't squeeze to keep the breezers in.”
― Janet Evanovich, quote from Sizzling Sixteen

“honor included not only physical and moral courage but also a daring commitment to central beliefs,”
― James A. Michener, quote from Texas

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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.

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