The End of the Alphabet Quotes

“A man can see a hundred women, lust for a thousand more, but it is one scent that will open his eyes and turn him to love.”
― C.S. Richardson, The End of the Alphabet

“When his father asked why A wasn't apple or B wasn't bird or C wasn't cat, young Ambrose explained that things didn't always have to be the way you'd expect. Everybody does apples and birds and cats, he said, and it's boring to do what everybody else does.”
― C.S. Richardson, The End of the Alphabet

“In the face of all reason she was interested in him as he was. Not as he wished he was.”
― C.S. Richardson, The End of the Alphabet

“He believed women to be quantifiably wiser than men. He was neither a breast nor a leg nor an ass man; hair could be any length, any colour. Ambrose preferred the complete puzzle to a bit here, a piece there.”
― C.S. Richardson, The End of the Alphabet

“She read everything. Russian epics, French confections, American noir, English tabloids had at one time or another taken their place in a wobbly pile beside the bed. Nonfiction was too much like school, she said. Experimental literature left her cold and annoyed and despairing for the so-called modern craft. She had lost count of how many times she had read Wuthering Heights.”
― C.S. Richardson, The End of the Alphabet

“When cornered, he claimed to read Joyce, Ford, and Conrad. Rereads of Fleming and Wodehouse were a more accurate library. His opinion of Miss Elizabeth Bennet was not favorable (though he liked Mr. B. and held a wary respect for Darcy). Wuthering Heights, according to Ambrose, was the dullest book ever written.”
― C.S. Richardson, The End of the Alphabet

“Le aveva detto che era stato lui a insegnare a un nipote fastidiosamente curioso a leggere i sottotitoli della vita.”
― C.S. Richardson, The End of the Alphabet

“Migliaia di parole le svolazzavano in testa, ma non riusciva a farne atterrare sulla pagina nemmeno una.”
― C.S. Richardson, The End of the Alphabet

“...painted by a troubled young man, Mrs. Zephyr was saying... cut off part of his own ear...

Ambrose went back to looking. What he saw didn't need his mother going on about symbols and meanings and madness and genius, he thought. She knew a lot, but she didn't know when to stop complicating things. The sunflowers were like none he had ever seen, ear or no ear, troubles or not.

Ambrose Zephyr liked what he liked and didn't like what he didn't like.

It was as simple as that.”
― C.S. Richardson, The End of the Alphabet

“This is now, Zipper said, as she picked up a small stone and slid it in her pocket.”
― C.S. Richardson, The End of the Alphabet

“With the proper amount of squint.”
― C.S. Richardson, The End of the Alphabet

“But times, as are their custom, had changed.”
― C.S. Richardson, The End of the Alphabet

“This was not her Ambrose, she thought at first. But then, apparently, it was.”
― C.S. Richardson, The End of the Alphabet