A Town Like Alice Quotes

“She looked at him in wonder. "Do people think of me like that? I only did what anybody could have done."
"That's as it may be," he replied. "The fact is, that you did it.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“I know you've taken risks to do these things. Do Please be careful."
"Don't worry about me," he said. "You've got enough troubles on your own plate, my word. But we'll come out all right, so long as we just keep alive, that's all we got to do. Just keep alive another two years, till the war's over.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“It's no good going on living in the ashes of a dead happiness.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“...one has to make an effort at a time like that, and a clean break. It’s no good going on living in the ashes of a dead happiness.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“Men's souls are naturally inclined to covetousness; but if ye be kind towards women and fear to wrong them, God is well acquainted with what ye do.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“It was so beautiful', he said. 'the Three Pagodas Pass must be one of the loveliest places in the world. you've got this broad valley with the river running down it, and the jungle forest, and the mountains....we used to sit by the river and watch the sun setting behind the mountains, sometimes, and say what a marvellous place it would be to come to for a holiday. however terrible a prison camp may be, it makes a difference if its beautiful.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“She found that the standard breakfast in Willstown was half a pound of steak with two fried eggs on top of it; she surprised Annie very much by asking for one fried egg and no steak. "Breakfast is steak and eggs," Annie explained patiently to the queer English girl.
"I know it is," said Jean, "But I don't want the steak."
"Well you don't have to eat it." The girl was obviously puzzled.
"Could I have one fried egg and no steak?' asked Jean.
"You mean, just one fried egg on a plate by itself?"
"That's right."
Food conservation in Willstown was evidently quite a new idea. "I'll ask Mrs Connor," said Annie. She came back from the kitchen with a steak with two fried eggs on top. "We've only got the one breakfast." she explained. Jean gave up the struggle.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“You just said you couldn’t stand Willstown,’ he objected. ‘Burketown and Croydon – well, they’re just the same.’ ‘I know,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘I’m not being very reasonable, am I? First I say I couldn’t stand living in a place like that, and then I say that you oughtn’t to think of living anywhere else.’ ‘That’s right.’ He was puzzled and distressed. ‘We’ve got to try and work it out some way to find what suits us both.’ ‘There’s only one way to do that, Joe.’ ‘What’s that?’ She smiled at him. ‘We’ll have to do something about Willstown.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“People who spent the war in prison camps have written a lot of books about what a bad time they had," she said quietly, staring into the embers. "They don't know what it was like, not being in a camp.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“You don’t feel any different as you get older. Only, you can’t do so much.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“Her ideas about reporters had been moulded by the cinema; it was a surprise to her to find that in real life they could be kind and helpful people with good manners.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“Leave-takings are stupid things, and best forgotten about as quickly as possible.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“It was a gambler's action, but his whole life had probably been made up of gambles; it could hardly be otherwise in the outback.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“There’s one or two objections,’ Mr Porter said. ‘One is the sharks. They’ll take you if you go out more than knee deep. Another is the alligators. Then there’s the stone fish – he lies on the beach and looks just like a stone until you tread on him, and he squirts about a pint of poison into you. The Portuguese Men-o’-War aren’t so good, either. But the thing that really puts me off is Coral Ear.’ ‘What’s that?’ ‘A sort of growth inside your head that comes from getting this fine coral sand into your ear.’ Jean came to the conclusion that perhaps she wouldn’t bathe in Darwin after all.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“She lived, but she had very little zest for life.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“It’s no good going on living in the ashes of a dead happiness.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“It all seems so remote, as if it was something that happened to another person, years ago – something that you’d read in a book. As if it wasn’t me at all.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“I pointed out to her what sort of life she would be able to lead upon nine hundred a year. As an instance, I told her that she could have a country cottage in Devonshire and a little car, and a daily maid, and still have money to spare for a moderate amount of foreign travel.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“Most jobs are interesting when you are learning them,’ I said.”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

“He said, "The spring was good enough for their mothers and their grandmothers before them. They will get ideas above their station in life if they have a well." She”
― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice