Lie to Me Quotes

“they’ll convince the rest of the world that justice has finally been done and he’ll be left to rot. But he won’t go quietly.”
― Jess Ryder, Lie to Me

“She’s an actress – not a very good one, but Isobel casts her whenever there’s a suitable part, and sometimes when there isn’t.”
― Jess Ryder, Lie to Me

“I call the office and tell my boss I’ve had a bad reaction to the dental anaesthetic. And although it’s a lie, that’s kind of how it feels. Like I’ve been drugged and the chemicals are still swirling around my system. The house is cold – no heating on during the day – and my body temperature starts to drop again, so I fill a hot-water bottle and climb into bed with all my clothes on, my dressing gown laid on top of the duvet as an extra layer.”
― Jess Ryder, Lie to Me

“That video is… well, extraordinary,’ she says. ‘And I mean absolutely extraordinary. The first time I watched it, shivers went right through my spine. I couldn’t sleep all night for thinking about it.’ She lets out a trembling sigh and then leans forward across the table, so close that I can see her pores, clogged with deathly pale face powder. With the jet-black hair and scarlet lips, she looks more like a forgotten bride of Dracula than a forties movie star, which I imagine was the original intention. ‘Tell me,’ she says. ‘What was your first reaction? I mean, did it bring back any memories?’ I shake my head. ‘No. Not at all. But then, I was only four.’ ‘Hmm… That doesn’t surprise me.’ The waiter pours our wine and Isobel takes a generous glug. ‘Children usually forget their past lives once they reach five or six. That’s normal.’ It doesn’t sound normal to me, but Isobel leaves no space for my opinion, embarking on a mini lecture about reincarnation, as if it factually exists, like cancer or heart disease – or death itself, for that matter. I drink my wine and let her talk. Not all of us reincarnate, apparently; it only happens when there’s ‘unfinished business’. I assume by that she doesn’t mean incomplete kitchen extensions or not reaching your weight-loss target. She tells me that, despite being ‘very drawn’ to Buddhism, she doesn’t subscribe to the karmic interpretation – disabled people, for example, being punished for wrongdoings in former lives. She thinks that’s cruel and utterly ludicrous. Her jury’s out on whether people ever reincarnate as domestic pets and believes it probably only happens occasionally, in exceptional circumstances. But the notion of dead people’s spirits floating out of their bodies and wandering around the ether looking for new, unsuspecting hosts appears to make perfect sense. She’s talking a load of crap and yet I seem unable – unwilling even – to contradict her. I just sit there, listening and nodding. To my shame, I even interject the odd agreeing noise. Isobel Dalliday is enchanting me. I find her warm, funny and extremely entertaining. And I mustn’t forget, she’s paying for lunch.”
― Jess Ryder, Lie to Me

“She got out of bed and dressed in the worst clothes she could find, in case she had to sacrifice them to the gardening. Footwear was a problem, but there was a pair of wellington boots in the conservatory – belonging to the dead grandmother, she presumed – and she tried them on. They were a size too big but comfortable enough. Outside, the grass looked like a tatty shag-pile carpet, and weeds were already sprouting in the flower beds. The garden shed was padlocked, but she found the key in one of the kitchen drawers and managed to get the door open. As she stared at the torn compost bags, towers of empty flowerpots, watering cans, sieves, odd bits of chicken wire and the jumble of spades, forks, shovels, hoes, rakes and trowels, she was suddenly overcome with apathy. She shut the door and snapped the padlock back on.”
― Jess Ryder, Lie to Me

“have moved back home with Dad until I got myself sorted out, but that felt like too much of a defeat.”
― Jess Ryder, Lie to Me

“He’d never lie about something that serious.”
― Jess Ryder, Lie to Me

“heatwave. Dad was wearing a T-shirt and baggy shorts, flip-flops on his feet, a bottle of beer in his hand.”
― Jess Ryder, Lie to Me

“He is my father in every meaningful definition of the word. Any other label is purely biological and I’ve never been keen on science. Give me uncertainty any time. Give me speculation, intuition, gut instinct, wild leaps of the imagination. Give me human error. Maybe”
― Jess Ryder, Lie to Me