The Palm House Quotes

“I came back down, gingerly, as always, holding both banisters. I found Michael and Caitlin playing snooker, Vik at the bar. Putnam was talking to Katherine about his father. I’d heard the story he was telling, but I listened in anyway.”
― Gwendoline Riley, The Palm House

“I like the idea of a banner,’ said Daugherty, dropping three bags of crisps onto the table: ‘Welcome to mid-career.’ ‘Welcome to mid-career,’ said Vik, ‘where everyone cares just that little bit less about anything you say or do.’ ‘Is that true, though?’ said Michael. ‘Not in our game, surely . .”
― Gwendoline Riley, The Palm House

“Now how’s little Emily coming on?’ Putnam said. ‘She applied for the editor’s job. Did you hear that?’ said Michael. ‘To be editor? She’s barely graduated,’ said Putnam. ‘She’s doing her doctorate,’ Michael said. ‘Still, it’s interesting, isn’t it?’ ‘It’s psychotic,’ said Putnam. ‘She was an intern a week ago.’ ‘She is very good,’ said Katherine. ‘She’s not dazzling. I suppose she thought she’d throw the dice. She got an interview, by the way.’ ‘Good grief. You’re not serious.’ ‘She didn’t even want it, she told me,’ Vik said. ‘She said it would just be, quote, a great way to skip mid-career, unquote.’ ‘I see,’ said Putnam. ‘That is interesting, in a way. Of course we wouldn’t have dreamt . . .’ he said. ‘And when she didn’t get it?’ Caitlin said. ‘Unperturbed. On to the next thing.’ ‘Of course,’ said Putnam. ‘Maybe she could apply to be Secretary General of the UN,’ he said. ‘Or the new Pope.”
― Gwendoline Riley, The Palm House

“It was hard to tell Mitch’s age: his hair was white, but his skin was smooth and shiny. He wore starched jeans, and a short-sleeved shirt with knife creases down the sleeves. In place of a watch he had a small screen strapped to his wrist.”
― Gwendoline Riley, The Palm House

“Of course people could be fatuous. But why did Putnam have to take it so hard? When, for instance, somebody in the pub asked, ‘How’s old Halfwit?’ or ‘How’s Shouty?’ (this from Shouty Bumcrack, a name Katherine had come up with when Shove first arrived, and everyone had got to know that part of him, whether they wanted to or not, due to the way he wore his jeans), Putnam couldn’t just wince and say, Oh don’t ask. He had to make a point of looking affronted. ‘I’m glad someone finds it funny,’ he might say, under his breath. Or when that person was at the bar: ‘I’m sorry, but Shove is not a comic character.’ It wasn’t like Putnam not to be direct. This was a measure of the upset, I suppose, the way it was chasing him into his own furthest corners.”
― Gwendoline Riley, The Palm House