Kate Pullinger > Quotes

“I got so used to saying good-bye that when he disappeared for real I didn't notice.”
― Kate Pullinger, Weird Sister

“That moment marked a change in my life, a change more profound than a new wardrobe, however wild. My Lady cast off her English clothes and it was as though in that moment our relationship shifted as well, in some unspoken, unpredicted way. I was not her equal, I was part of her routine, part of her life, my care for her so intimate that it was as though I was part of her body—a hand, perhaps. A foot. Something indispensable, to which you do not give much thought. But from that moment hence, things shifted between us, and life changed. Later that morning, after my Lady had breakfasted, I went into my room and closed the door. I remembered when my Lady had purchased the trousers and tunic in Cairo; both Mr Abu Halaweh and I had assumed she was buying gifts for her husband. I had even imagined Sir Alick thus clad—he would laugh at himself and allow her to coax him into wearing the outfit for one of their supper parties. But now that my Lady had cast aside her European clothes, I longed to do the same. I undressed, taking off the brown muslin, faded now from being put out to dry in the sun repeatedly. I took off my layers of undergarments. I unlaced my stays. Like my”
― Kate Pullinger, The Mistress of Nothing

“Jenny lies in bed chanting her resolutions. She is full of resolutions. Number one: Don’t eat. Jenny is tall and thin – a childish thin, she carries her breasts high on her ribcage and keeps her shoulders rounded, turned in, she is hipless, thighless, has no belly – but she is not too thin, and she would like to be too thin. She aspires to anorexia, but she hasn’t got the will and looks on this as a failure of sorts. Come mealtime she forgets, and eats what is put in front of her. Jenny is a good girl.”
― Kate Pullinger, Weird Sister

“I have a theory,” Emily said. “I’m not a djinni,” Yacub replied. “I’m not dead either.” “I might have never met Harriet if it wasn’t for you.” Yacub shook his head. “You’d been following each other for so long, at some point you were bound to collide.” “Maybe. I saw you fall. And I know you saved Jack’s life. And Harriet and Michael—you helped them.” “No. They are married. They are happy.” “What do you really think about all of us, Yacub?” He shrugged. “I’m here. This is where I belong.” “Do you think?” Yacub shrugged again. “Sometimes. Some days.” “Tell me about when you were on the plane, Yacub.” A frown passed across Yacub’s face. “What plane?”
― Kate Pullinger, Landing Gear

“I want to watch you sleeping,” he said. “Go to sleep.” For a long time Stephen listened to Mina breathing. He turned in the chair to look out the window, pinching himself to stay awake. The moon was not out – the night was very dark. Much later the room behind him seemed to lighten. He opened the window to let the night in, to let what was inside get out. And then, slowly, he turned around to look at what was there. Mina is there. She is a vision.”
― Kate Pullinger, Where Does Kissing End?

“She had that kind of undeniable femininity that few women achieve, bogged down as we are by other things.”
― Kate Pullinger, Weird Sister

“She's going to keep up her public facade of stoicism and generosity and getting on with thungs. She knows she can do it, she can do the stiff upper lip thing. I will survive. But behind closed doors the going is rough. It's when she is alone that it hits her. And she is often alone, too often, she things no one should have to be alone as much as she is. It should have been me: her mind is a morass of old songs now, Errol Brown started it. It should have been me.”
― Kate Pullinger, Weird Sister

“I hope he was pushed." "Why." asks Jenny, astonished. "Because if he jumped, he'll never have any rest. He'll never have any peace.”
― Kate Pullinger, Weird Sister