The Moth Quotes

“Alice: Well, now it's over and I'll have all the peace I want, and I won't like it. Life's funny isn't it, dear?
Robert: Aye, Aunty. Life's funny, it's a twisted thing.”
― Catherine Cookson, The Moth

“the place seemed different without him, bare of personality. Last night she had again confronted herself, and the knowledge that she was letting herself down by even thinking the way she did and had again brought forth the rejoinder: what real harm could there be in thinking because all she would ever have of him were thoughts, She would never give herself away and so who was to know what she thought.”
― Catherine Cookson, The Moth

“What is it?' she cried at herself. 'What is the matter with me? Am I too becoming odd? Is this what spinsterhood does to one?'.....she made for the door her mind seemed to accept the fact that she was entering a new kind of world, the world of spinsterhood, and she saw it as something that had to be faced, lived with, endured. But with the handle of the door gripped in her hand, she looked down at it as she thought bitterly, What a waste of life!”
― Catherine Cookson, The Moth

“She was given no immediate answer, she only knew that somewhere a door had opened inside her and that it would be impossible to close it from now on.”
― Catherine Cookson, The Moth

“Waters: And mind your p's and q's.
Robert: I know my p's and q's, and the whole alphabet for that matter. you've got no need to tell me how to act, mister.”
― Catherine Cookson, The Moth

“Millie: Maggie's funny
Maggie: I am that. I am that. And nobody knows better than meself how funny. When the good Lord thought me up He said, "I'll make her nothin' to look at but she'll be good to listen to." Come away with you now an' listen some more.”
― Catherine Cookson, The Moth

“She a natural born comic, but she didn't know it. That was her gift, she didn't know it.”
― Catherine Cookson, The Moth

“The fellow had said that education had nothing to do with intelligence and that half the so-called educated were numskulls.”
― Catherine Cookson, The Moth

“Cos as me dad always said, fast women and slow horses get you nowhere.”
― Catherine Cookson, The Moth

“Agnes once told me a story about the moon. She said, once its reflection touches the water it turns to gold; but you must never try to steal it, for if you did the night would lose its smile.' And she turned and looked at him as she ended, 'It's the only smile the night has, is the moon.”
― Catherine Cookson, The Moth

“I can't help it, when the moon is out I must come out too...I am not mad.”
― Catherine Cookson, The Moth

“Only that she is the light of our days and without her life would be very dull in this house. She's a trial, there's no doubt about that, but all things worthwhile are trials. Life's a trial, it's a battle, it's a strife from the day you're born. And that's shared out between rich and poor alike, only the Lord seems to be more generous towards the poor with it, if you know what I mean.”
― Catherine Cookson, The Moth

“I understand you like reading?'
'Aye, miss, I like reading. But the more I read, the more I realize how ignorant I am.”
― Catherine Cookson, The Moth