Lola in the Mirror Quotes

“And I thought to myself in that moment that this remarkable interaction had only come about because I’d decided to cartwheel to H&M, because I’d decided to choose wonder. And that’s just about as close to the point of it as I can get. Do I want to walk through this life of mine? Or do I want to cartwheel through it?”
― Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror

“The world turns for us all. One day you’ll wake up and you’ll realise the world has turned back upright for you and every bad thing you didn’t deserve on the downside is made up for by every good thing rushing at you on the upside. You’ll look up one day and see some face and suddenly it’ll all make sense and all that bad downside stuff will”
― Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror

“Sometimes it’s good to settle for the side-mirror view of life. Sometimes we don’t want to see the full picture.”
― Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror

“One day you’ll wake up and you’ll realise the world has turned back upright for you and every bad thing you didn’t deserve on the downside is made up for by every good thing rushing at you on the upside.”
― Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror

“We look to the stars. Backs on the grass. Danny rolls on his side. Props his head up with his left hand. ‘Hey, you still wanna know why I was crying on the bridge?’ he asks. ‘Yeah.’ He sits up. He’s breaking fragments of a twig between his fingers. ‘It’s a bit messed up.’ ‘It is?’ I sit up now, too. ‘Well, now I really wanna know.’ He tosses a bit of a twig over his feet. ‘Sometimes I go to the middle of that bridge and I look over the edge and I think about jumping off,’ he says. ‘Right,’ I say, wondering where he’s going with this. ‘But I’m not doing that in a sad, death way,’ he says. ‘I’m doing that in an alive way.’ ‘An alive way?’ I nod, trying my best to keep up. ‘I don’t think I’d ever jump, but sometimes I really think hard about it, and it terrifies me,’ he says. ‘And then it makes me feel alive. It makes me feel grateful. Because in that instant I feel like I’ve saved myself from certain death. I don’t know what part of me wants to jump, I can’t explain where it comes from, but it’s like some weird part of me always wants to die. I think that’s why I’m scared of heights. Like, have you ever been on one of those balconies in one of those high-rise apartments on the Gold Coast?’ ‘No,’ I say. ‘I live in a van.’ ‘Right,’ he says. ‘Sorry. Entitled dick.’ ‘You’re entitled to be.’ ‘Those Gold Coast apartments have balconies as high as the clouds, but the railings on the balconies don’t even go up past your belly button. You could trip over and that’d be it. Splat. I think some people get scared on those balconies because they are scared of the part of themselves that wants to die. For most of us it’s among the few times in our lives when we come so close to so easily being able to end it all, and we’re terrified by that voice in our heads screaming, “Don’t jump, arsehole,” and it’s like, what sort of crazy fuck has to even say that to themselves? So, sometimes when I’m on that bridge I think all that stuff, and then those thoughts are like reminders of how fucking beautiful it all is. The thought of dying reminds me why I love it all so much. I look at the river and the buildings and the lights and the moon and the stars and the people going past and I say these same words: “You’re so fucking lucky.”
― Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror

“Yeah, I try to tell myself that I don’t need a real name. But I reckon I do. I think it’s important to know who you really are and who you really want to be. I guess what I’m trying to tell you is that I’m not a rock. And I sure as hell ain’t no rainbow.”
― Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror

“She cries so hard her lungs and liver and kidneys slip out with her tears and she loses her heart in the salt of the past. So there she sits, with all her”
― Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror

“Do I want to walk through this life of mine? Or do I want to cartwheel through it?”
― Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror

“For a start, I ain't homeless, I'm just houseless. Those two things are about as different as resting your head on a silk pillowcase and resting your head on a brick.”
― Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror

“It’s amazing how beneficial it can be looking at your life through the lens of a seventy-year-old Englishman who talks like he’s got a fountain pen wedged up his jacksie.”
― Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror

“He takes a deep breath and runs a hand through his hair. Hugs his sketchbook to his chest. And then he cries. Rubs his eyes with the back of his right hand, which still clutches the sketchbook. I instinctively move four steps towards him along the bridge railing. I want to be beside him. I want to tell him what Ursula Lang says about tears, how she considers laughter the second best way to instantly connect with a stranger, and how she considers crying the first best way to connect with a stranger. A declaration to the world that you feel.”
― Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror