Martyn Pig Quotes

“Things don't just happen, they have reasons. And the reasons have reasons. And the reasons for the reasons have reasons. And then the things that happen make other things happen, so they become reasons themselves. Nothing moves forward in a straight line, nothing is straightforward.”
― Kevin Brooks, Martyn Pig

“You reach a certain age when reality grabs you by the scruff of the neck and shouts in your face:"Hey, look, this is what life is." And you have to open your eyes and look at it, listen to it, smell it: people who don't like you, things you don't want to do, things that hurt, things that scare you, questions without answers, feelings you don't understand, feelings you don't want but have no control over.

Reality.

When you gradually come to realise that all that stuff in books, films, television, magazines, newspapers, comics - it's all rubbish. It's got nothing to do with anything. It's all made up. It doesn't happen like that. It's not real. It means nothing. Reality is what you see when you look out of the window of a bus: dour faces, sad and temporary lives, millions of cars, metal, bricks, glass, rain, cruel laughter, ugliness, dirt, bad teeth, crippled pigeons, little kids in pushchairs who've already forgotten how to smile ...”
― Kevin Brooks, Martyn Pig

“It's strange, the lack of emotion, the absence of drama in reality. When things happen in real life, extraordinary things, there's no music, there's no dah-dah-daaahhs. There's no close-ups. No dramatic camera angles. Nothing happens. Nothing stops, the rest of the world goes on.”
― Kevin Brooks, Martyn Pig

“Alcohol. It sucks the life out of a face and replaces it with its own dumb shine of inanity. It’s up to you. If you want to lose yourself, have a drink.”
― Kevin Brooks, Martyn Pig

“It’s strange, the lack of emotion, the absence of drama in reality. When things happen in real life, extraordinary things, there’s no music…There’s no close-ups. No dramatic camera angles. Nothing happens. Nothing stops, the rest of the world goes on.”
― Kevin Brooks, Martyn Pig

“It's like the difference between a well-constructed ball of string and a raggedy old pile of knots. With the ball of string you can get hold of one end, slowly unravel it and eventually you'll find out where it comes from. But with the pile of knots you pull on one and the whole things moves at once. . . . The austere simplicity of fiction versus the tangled wool of fact. Who said that? Einstein again? . . . Or did I?”
― Kevin Brooks, Martyn Pig

“I asked myself what I'd take if I was stranded on a desert island. I wouldn't bother with any records, for a start. If you've only got eight, you're going to get fed up with all of them pretty soon. They'd start to get on your nerves. So, no records. That left me with a book and a luxury object. What book would I take? . . . There's tons of books I really like, but what'd be the point? One book's not much good. Once you've read it half a dozen times you might as well throw it away. . . . That left me with a luxury object. . . . Something of no practical value. . . . I couldn't think of anything. . . . There was nothing I wanted on my desert island.”
― Kevin Brooks, Martyn Pig

“You can do just about anything you want — as long as it doesn't hurt anyone, or anything, it's probably OK.”
― Kevin Brooks, Martyn Pig

“Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control.”
― Kevin Brooks, Martyn Pig

“Why couldn't I have a normal name? Keith Watson, Darren Jones — something like that. . . . Unless you've got an odd name yourself, you wouldn't know what it's like. You wouldn't understand. They say sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you. Oh, yeah? Well, whoever thought that one up was an idiot. An idiot with an ordinary name, probably. Words hurt.”
― Kevin Brooks, Martyn Pig

“What’s wrong with silence? Listen to it, it’s beautiful.”
― Kevin Brooks, Martyn Pig: A stunning reissue of the Branford Boase-winning novel from Kevin Brooks.