Don't waste your love on somebody who doesn't value it.
William Shakespeare in Romeo and JulietI keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it's just too much. The current's too strong. They've got to let go, drift apart.
Seperation & BreakupKazuo Ishiguro in Never Let Me GoMemories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don't go along with that. The memories I value most, I don't ever see them fading.
Kazuo Ishiguro in Never Let Me GoSometimes I get so immersed in my own company, if I unexpectedly run into someone I know, it's a bit of a shock and takes me a while to adjust.
Kazuo Ishiguro in Never Let Me GoBut then again I wonder if what we feel in our hearts today isn't like these raindrops still falling on us from the soaked leaves above, even though the sky itself long stopped raining. I'm wondering if without our memories, there's nothing for it but for our love to fade and die.
Kazuo Ishiguro in The Buried GiantWhen it was too late for rescue, it was still early enough for revenge.
RevengeKazuo Ishiguro in The Buried GiantHow is it possible to hate so deeply for deeds not yet done?
Kazuo Ishiguro in The Buried GiantA couple may claim to be bonded by love, but we boatmen may see instead resentment, anger, even hatred. Or a great barrenness. Sometimes a fear of loneliness and nothing more.
Kazuo Ishiguro in The Buried GiantWhat use is a god with boundless mercy, sir? You mock me as a pagan, yet the gods of my ancestors pronounce clearly their ways and punish severely when we break their laws. Your Christian god of mercy gives men licence to pursue their greed, their lust for land and blood, knowing a few prayers and a little penance will bring forgiveness and blessing.
ChristianityKazuo Ishiguro in The Buried GiantThe danger isn't the river's speed, friend, but its slowness.
RiversKazuo Ishiguro in The Buried GiantWe took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.
Kazuo Ishiguro in Never Let Me GoIt was like when you make a move in chess and just as you take your finger off the piece, you see the mistake you've made, and there's this panic because you don't know yet the scale of disaster you've left yourself open to.
ChessKazuo Ishiguro in Never Let Me GoAll children have to be deceived if they are to grow up without trauma.
Kazuo Ishiguro in Never Let Me GoYou say you're sure? Sure that you're in love? How can you know it? You think love is so simple?
Kazuo Ishiguro in Never Let Me GoThe evening's the best part of the day. You've done your day's work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it.
Evening, After WorkKazuo Ishiguro in The Remains of the DayIf you are under the impression you have already perfected yourself, you will never rise to the heights you are no doubt capable of.
Kazuo Ishiguro in The Remains of the DayThe problem, as I see it, is that you've been told and not told. You've been told, but none of you really understand, and I dare say, some people are quite happy to leave it that way.
Kazuo Ishiguro in Never Let Me GoAfter all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished?
Kazuo Ishiguro in The Remains of the DayThe giant, once well buried, now stirs. When soon he rises, as surely he will, the friendly bonds between us will prove as knots young girls make with the stems of small flowers.
Kazuo Ishiguro in The Buried GiantIndeed - why should I not admit it? - in that moment, my heart was breaking.
Kazuo Ishiguro in The Remains of the DayI won the bet but I lost the only thing that has ever made me happy.
Hardin Scott in After PassionA woman has to live her life, or live to repent not having lived it.
WomenD. H. Lawrence in Lady Chatterley's LoverThere's lots of good fish in the sea... maybe... but the vast masses seem to be mackerel or herring, and if you're not mackerel or herring yourself, you are likely to find very few good fish in the sea.
Singles & DatingD. H. Lawrence in Lady Chatterley's LoverPerhaps only people who are capable of real togetherness have that look of being alone in the universe. The others have a certain stickiness, they stick to the mass.
D. H. Lawrence in Lady Chatterley's LoverSex and a cocktail: they both lasted about as long, had the same effect, and amounted to the same thing.
Sex, CocktailsD. H. Lawrence in Lady Chatterley's LoverI only want one thing of men, and that is, that they should leave me alone.
Feminism, Dump-QuotesD. H. Lawrence in Lady Chatterley's LoverIt's no good trying to get rid of your own aloneness. You've got to stick to it all your life. Only at times, at times, the gap will be filled in. At times! But you have to wait for the times. Accept your own aloneness and stick to it, all your life. And then accept the times when the gap is filled in, when they come. But they've got to come. You can't force them.
Solitude & Being AloneD. H. Lawrence in Lady Chatterley's LoverA little morphine in all the air. It would be wonderfully refreshing for everyone.
D. H. Lawrence in Lady Chatterley's LoverWhat the eye doesn't see and the mind doesn't know, doesn't exist.
Mind & Apprehension, SeeingD. H. Lawrence in Lady Chatterley's LoverNever was an age more sentimental, more devoid of real feeling, more exaggerated in false feeling, than our own.
1920sD. H. Lawrence in Lady Chatterley's LoverMe? Oh, intellectually I believe in having a good heart, a chirpy p-nis, a lively intelligence, and the courage to say 'shit!' in front of a lady.
D. H. Lawrence in Lady Chatterley's LoverMoney is a sort of instinct. It's a sort of property of nature in a man to make money.
MoneyD. H. Lawrence in Lady Chatterley's LoverOurs is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.
1920sD. H. Lawrence in Lady Chatterley's LoverWell, as to that, all I'll say is, you can't take out a fellow's heart before he's ready to give it up.
HeartLouis Bayard in The Pale Blue EyeHe saw things in a way that others did not, so that a city I had lived in all my life seemed a different place, so that a woman became beautiful with the light on her face.
Tracy Chevalier in Girl With A Pearl EarringI did not mind the cold so much when he was there.
Tracy Chevalier in Girl With A Pearl EarringYou're so calm and quiet, you never say. But there are things inside you. I see them sometimes, hiding in your eyes.
Tracy Chevalier in Girl With A Pearl EarringYes, well, life is a folly. If you live long enough, nothing is surprising.
Tracy Chevalier in Girl With A Pearl EarringI had walked along that street all my life, but had never been so aware that my back was to my home.
Tracy Chevalier in Girl With A Pearl EarringIt was not a house where secrets could be kept easily.
Tracy Chevalier in Girl With A Pearl Earring"Well," Lockwood said, "if you judge success by the number of enemies you make, that was a highly successful evening."
Jonathan Stroud in Lockwood & Co. - 2: The Whispering SkullDave: "You're not our leader."
Lucy: "No, but I know what I'm doing, which is a nice alternative."
Lockwood: "Never touch a mummified body part if you don't know where it's been. That's my motto."
George: "Holds true with unmummified ones too. That's the motto I live by."
According to some, heroic deaths are admirable things. I've never been convinced by this argument, mainly because, no matter how cool, stylish, composed, unflappable, manly, or defiant you are, at the end of the day you're also dead. Which is a little too permanent for my liking.
HerosJonathan Stroud in Bartimaeus Sequence - 3: Ptolemy's GateIt was Nathaniel's boundless capacity for stating the obvious that made him so charmingly human.
Jonathan Stroud in Bartimaeus Sequence - 3: Ptolemy's Gate"Really?"
"No. I'm being ironic. Or is it sarcastic? I can never remember."
"Irony's cleverer, so you're probably being sarcastic."
It was a time of beginnings and a time of endings.
Jonathan Stroud in Lockwood & Co. - 5: The Empty GraveStop worrying about the past. The past is for ghosts. We've all done things that we regret. It's what's ahead of us that counts.
Jonathan Stroud in Lockwood & Co. - 1: The Screaming Staircase"I warn you," the boy went on. "I am a magician of great power. I control many terrifying entities. This being you see before you" - here I rolled my shoulders back and puffed my chest up menacingly - "is but the meanest and least impressive of my slaves." (Here I slumped my shoulders and stuck my stomach out.)
Jonathan Stroud in Bartimaeus Sequence - 2: The Golem's EyeMaking tea is a ritual that stops the world from falling in on you.
TeaJonathan Stroud in Lockwood & Co. - 4: The Creeping Shadow