Human Croquet Quotes

“The beginning is the word and the end is silence. And in between are all the stories.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“I am mad, I think. I am mad therefore I think. I am mad therefore I think I am.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“I suppose a better sister would have set about weaving him a shirt from nettles and throwing it over his furred-over body so that he could be released from his enchantment and resume his human form. I give him some cat food instead.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“I wanted her for what she was, but when I got her I wanted her to change.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“... the doors of perception are hanging crazily off their hinges these days.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“Do you keep time in the same place that you save it? If so why is it always so difficult to find? It must be in a very safe place.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“I'm not myself," she said and then laughed maniacally, "but God knows who I am.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“Before the beginning is the void and the void belongs in neither time nor space and is therefore beyond our imagination.
Nothing will come of nothing unless it's the beginning of the world. This is how it begins, with the word and the word is life. The void is transformed by a gigantic firecracker allowing time to dawn and imagination to begin.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“Then slowly, slowly, the bark crept over their faces, until only their mouths remained and their mother rushed from one to another, kissing her daughters in a frenzy. Then, at last, they bid their mother one last terrible farewell before the bark closed over their lips for ever. They continued”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“Phaeton’s sisters who mourned so much for their charred brother that they turned into trees – imagine their feelings as they found their feet were fast to the earth, turning, even as they looked, into roots. When they tore their hair they found their hands were full, not of hair, but of leaves. Their legs were trapped inside tree-trunks, their arms formed branches and they watched in horror as bark crept over their breasts and stomachs. Clymene, their poor mother, frantically trying to pull the bark off her daughters, instead snapped their fragile branches and her tree-daughters cried out to her in pain and terror, begging her not to hurt them any more.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“I myself am usually to be found lying on the bed imitating the dead Chatterton, killing time by reading book after book (the only reliable otherworlds i´ve discovered so far).”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“The cats are murdering sleep, the wall rumbling with their engine purrs -prut prut prut as they snore their way to oblivion.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“Vinny rarely leaves the house so when she does it's an occasion of some importance to her. She spends a lot of time looking forward to a glimpse of the outside world and then, when she returns, even more time complaining about it.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“I don't think I'd mind working on a cheese counter. It would leave my mind free to do whatever it wanted - which is nothing in particular, it's true, but I like being alone in my head, I'm used to it.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“Reality seems to go out the window when perception comes in the door. And,”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“to weep even when turned into trees, their tears dropping into the river flowing at their feet and forming drops of sun-coloured amber.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“true, but”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“Реальность, как и время, - штука относительная. Не исключено, что реальностей много - то, что видишь, зависит от того, на чем стоишь.”
― Кейт Аткинсон, Human Croquet

“Spring forward, fall back," Eunice chants. "Daylight saving" -- what an amazing idea. (If only you could, but where would you keep it? With the time that's found? Or the time that's kept? A treasure chest, or a hole in the ground?)
"You're late," Eunice says.
"Better than never," I reply irritably.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“Ah, but the rich are different,’ the footman said, ‘they take a lot more looking after.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“Is this normal, I wonder? But then, what is normal?”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“I'm a shadow of my former self," she announces. Vinny was a shadow to begin with, now she's a shadow of a shadow.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet

“Maybe we're all the living dead, reconstituted from the dust of the dead.”
― Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet