David Peace > Quotes

“You are afraid, afraid of your dreams, your dreams which were once your friends, your best friends, are now your enemies, your worst enemies.”
― David Peace, The Damned Utd

“My father used to say, 'If you want to know the artist, look at the art'.
He was usually talking about Stanley Matthews or Don Bradman when he said it.”
― David Peace, Nineteen Seventy-Four

“The sun comes out but the rain stays put. No rainbows today. Not here.”
― David Peace, The Damned Utd

“You wake up and for those few seconds, minutes, you forget; forget you are injured; forget you are finished.”
― David Peace, The Damned Utd

“They love me for what I'm not. They hate me for what I am.”
― David Peace, The Damned Utd

“The things I saw and things I missed-
The many, many bloody things I fucking missed-
It’s just another morning; another morning when I wish I wasn’t here.”
― David Peace, The Damned Utd

“Thank fuck!”
― David Peace, The Damned Utd

“Finished off and washed up before your time-
But you will never run a pub. You will never own a shop-
Instead, you will have your revenge-
That is how you shall live-
In place of a life, revenge.”
― David Peace, The Damned Utd

“He once told me, Instead of scoring thirty goals a season, why don't you score twenty-five and help someone else to score fifteen? That way the team's ten goals better off.”
― David Peace, The Damned Utd

“There will always be times when we get beaten, said Bill Shankly. There will always be times when we lose. But the important thing is what we take away from that beating, what we learn when we lose. Because we'll always learn more from a loss than a win. So remember that and learn that, lads.”
― David Peace, Red or Dead

“You’ve had enough of failure. Doubts. Had enough of disappointment.”
― David Peace, The Damned Utd

“Wearing your red scarves, your Liverpool scarves. To support Liverpool Football Club. So I thank you, boys. I thank you. For supporting Liverpool Football Club. Because we could do nothing without you, boys –
We would be nothing without you.”
― David Peace, Red or Dead

“And Bill saw the sadness. The wounds of sadness. And Bill saw the hurt. The wounds of hurt. Bill saw the wounds. And Bill felt the fear. Their wounds and their fear. And Bill smiled. And Bill said, There will always be times when we get beaten, boys. There will always be times when we lose. But important thing is what we take away from that beating, what we learn when we lose, boys. Because we'll always learn more from a defeat than a victory. Remember that, boys. Remember that. And learn it, boys.”
― David Peace, Red or Dead

“But there are tears in my eyes and then I can’t stop crying, stood there on that practice pitch in the dark, the tears rolling down my bloody cheeks, for once in my fucking life glad that I’m alone.”
― David Peace, The Damned Utd

“The future, like the past, is written. It cannot be changed, but it can help to heal the wounds of the present.”
― David Peace, Nineteen Seventy-Four

“You get nothing for coming second, son. Because if you are second, you are nothing. You are nowhere –
First is first. Second is nowhere.”
― David Peace

“It was raining so hard now that the whole city looked underwater. I wished to Christ it was, that the rain would drown the people and wash the place the fuck away.”
― David Peace, Nineteen Seventy-Four

“Leeds United had won but I didn’t care. I had lost.”
― David Peace, Nineteen Seventy-Four

“And I didn't think you believed in god or a heaven.'
'Having been here thirty-four days,' I tell him, 'I've changed my mind, Sydney.'
'Why's that then?' he smiles.
'Well, if there's a hell like this place, then there has to be heaven somewhere.”
― David Peace, The Damned Utd

“Uncle Eric holding court, proud the only time he ever left Yorkshire was to kill Germans.”
― David Peace, Nineteen Seventy-Four

“And I am still haunted by all the things I could have been.”
― David Peace

“I've seen it before. Been here before. Played or managed here, six or seven times in six or seven years. Always a visitor, always away.”
― David Peace, The Damned Utd

“Whatever people say you are, that is what you’re not.”
― David Peace, The Damned Utd

“I sat down on the arm of my father's empty chair, thinking of sea-view flats in Brighton, of southern girls called Anna or Sophie, and of a misplaced sense of filial duty now half redundant.”
― David Peace, Nineteen Seventy-Four

“Somewhere back on the moors, the visibility down to yards, I'd made that deal again.
I catch him, stop him murdering mothers, orphaning children, then you give us one, just one.”
― David Peace, Nineteen Eighty

“That promotion is satisfactory. Yes, Liverpool Football Club are back in the First Division. Back in the Big League. But that is only where Liverpool Football Club belong. Only where they should have been all along. In the First Division, in the Big League. So the next time you come bearing gifts, bringing presents, it will be because we've won the Big League. Because Liverpool Football Club have won the First Division. And the FA Cup. And the European Cup. And every cup there is to win. Because only that will be satisfactory, gentlemen. When Liverpool Football Club have won everything there is to win, when Liverpool Football Club have conquered the world. Only that will be enough.”
― David Peace, Red or Dead

“I was miles and years away and then suddenly aware my hour was at hand, feeling all their eyes on me.”
― David Peace, Nineteen Seventy-Four

“Matt Busby smiled again. And Matt Busby said, They have taken you to their hearts, Bill. To their very hearts.
Shankly! Shankly! Shankly! Shankly …
Aye, said Bill Shankly. They have, Matt. And I have taken them to mine. To my own heart, too…
Skankly! Shankly! Shankly …
But now they'll never let you go, Bill. You know that? Now they'll never let you leave, Bill. I hope you know that?
Shankly! Shankly …
Aye, Matt. I do know that. But I would never leave them, Matt. I would never go. Not now, Matt. Not now. Because I could never leave them, Matt. I could never let them go…
SHANK-LEE!”
― David Peace, Red or Dead

“I prayed for my mother and sister, for my uncles and aunts, for the friends I’d had, both good and bad, and last for my father wherever he was, Amen.”
― David Peace, Nineteen Seventy-Four

“The President had not come to ask for help. He did not want help. He did not need help. The President had not come to beg. He did not want charity. He did not need charity. The President had come only to hold them to their word. To have them keep their promises. Honour their pledges. The president had come only to collect. To collect what was his.”
― David Peace, GB84