Big Sky Quotes

“Running wasn’t pointless, of course. Sometimes you did it to try to outrun your thoughts, sometimes you did it to chase them and bring them down. Sometimes you did it so that you didn’t think at all.”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“In the endgame a pawn can change into a queen.”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“It was funny how so many men were defined by their downfall. Caesar, Fred Goodwin, Trotsky, Harvey Weinstein, Hitler, Jimmy Savile. Women hardly ever. They didn’t fall down. They stood up.”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“He could hardly beat them up, they were still – technically – children and he preferred to restrict his acts of violence to people old enough to fight for their country.”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“Must you always see the dark side of everything?’ Julia said. ‘Someone has to,’ Jackson said. ‘Yes, but does it have to be you?’ Apparently, yes. It did.”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“(“Didn’t you hear, Jackson?” Julia said. “The class war’s over. Everyone lost.”)”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“Jackson had never really seen the point of existential angst. If you didn’t like something you changed it and if you couldn’t change it you sucked it up and soldiered on, one foot after the other. (“Remind me not to come to you for therapy,” Julia said.)”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“He hadn't encountered a single soul on his run. This wasn't a popular part of the wood. You could probably die here and not be found for weeks. If ever. The same was true for a tree, he supposed. If a tree fell in the forest and there was no one to hear it, did it make a sound? Although it sounded like a Zen koan (yes, he knew the word "koan"), really it was a scientific question, to do with vibration and air pressure and the physiology of the ear. If a man fell in the forest--?
He went flying, tripping on a tree root that had been waiting in hiding to ambush him and exact revenge for his ignorance. More punishment for his knees. At least there was no one around to see his pratfall, although if he listened carefully Jackson thought he could hear the sound of one hand clapping.”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“There were different categories of friends in Vince's opinion. Golf friends, work friends, old school friends, shipboard friends...but friend friends were harder to come by.”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“Wronged wives were a law unto themselves.”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“Perhaps the past was no longer the context for the present. Perhaps none of it mattered anymore. Was this how the world would end—not with a bang but a So?”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“the”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“Must you always see the dark side of everything?” Julia said. “Someone has to,” Jackson said. “Yes, but does it have to be you?” Apparently, yes. It did.)”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“He had forgotten about God during the course of his life. He wondered if God had forgotten about him. He knew every sparrow, didn't He ? But did He know the rats ?”
― kate atkinson, Big Sky

“Guilt ? It was a new emotion to him. Sometimes he wondered where his humanity had gone. Oh yes, he remembered -- he'd never had any.”
― kate atkinson, Big Sky

“Nothing in Jackson's opinion, made a grown man look more of a twit than walking around licking an ice-cream cone.”
― kate atkinson, Big Sky

“On the way, they made a detour up to Rosedale Chimney Bank to stretch their legs and look at the sunset that was flooding the vast sky with a glorious palette of reds and yellows, orange and even violet. It demanded poetry, a thought he voiced out loud, and she said, “No, I don’t think so. It’s enough in itself.” The getting of wisdom, he thought.”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“You wait,” Jackson said. “One day you’ll have kids of your own and you’ll find that you make them do all the things that you currently despise—museums, stately homes, walks in the countryside—and they in turn will hate you for it. That, my son, is how cosmic justice works.”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“their”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“Before Enlightenment I chopped wood and carried water. After Enlightenment I chopped wood and carried water. Zen saying I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. Malcolm X”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“He was making up for it now, even if only to himself, because he still felt impelled to put on a good face for the world, it seemed bad manners to do otherwise. 'If you can't say something nice.', his mother had tutored him, 'then don't say anything at all.'

The hair was real. Crystal had no idea who it had once belonged to. She'd worried it might have come from a corpse but her hairdresser said, 'Nah, from a temple in India. The women shave their heads for some kind of religious thing and the monks sell it.'

That's how Crystal referred to it - 'Got your head stuck in a book again, Harry?' It would be funny if his head did actually get stuck in a book.

Her heart wasn't shattered, just cracked, although cracked was bad enough.

"Are you Mrs Bragg?' Reggie asked.
"Maybe," the woman said. Well, you either are or you aren't. Reggie thought. You're not Schrodinger's cat.

What do you call a nest of lesbians? A dyke eyrie.

"Great,' she said, so he knew she wasn't listening. An increasing number of people, Jackson had noticed lately, were not listening to him.

Dogs, you know, stay by their master's side after they've died. Fido, Hachiko, Ruswrap, Old Shep, Squeak, Spot. There was a list on Wikipedia.

I am the repository of useless knowledge.

Jackson had never really seen the point of existential angst. if you didn't like something you changed it and if you couldn't change it you sucked it up and soldiered on, one foot after the other. ('Remind me not to come to you for therapy,' Julia said.)

This was better, Jackson thought, all he had to do was utilize the lyrics from country songs, they contained better advice than anything he could conjure up himself. Best to avoid Hank, though - 'I'm so lonesome I could cry. I'll never get out of this world alive. I don't care if tomorrow never comes. Poor old Hank, not good mental fodder of a man who had just tried to jump off a cliff.

'Diaeresis - the two little dots above the "e", its not an umlaut.

Reggie thought if a day would ever goes by when she is not disappointed in people.

"Jesus Christ, Crystal,' he said, dropping the baseball bat and pulling off his shoes, prepare to jump in and save Tommy. So he could kill him later.”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“It was presumed that Harry would want none of his mother’s things. Perhaps that was why he had so few memories of her. It was objects, wasn’t it, that bound you to someone’s history? A hair-clip or a shoe. Kind of like a talisman.”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“Perhaps his son was right. Perhaps the past was no longer the context for the present. Perhaps none of it mattered anymore. Was this how the world would end—not with a bang but a So?”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“You might have thought that people would want their kids to stop eating Bassani’s ice cream after what had happened.”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“(the nonconception of beloved children always a stumbling block to the if-I-could-live-my-life-over-again fantasy).”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“comes”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“He was becoming a walking, talking history lesson, a one-man folk museum, except that nobody was interested in learning anything from him.”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“A quick getaway,’ she said, shucking”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“Men fell down. Women stood up.”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

“You know what they say” (or what Kenny Rogers would say), “‘you’ve got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them.’” This was better, Jackson thought, all he had to do was utilize the lyrics from country songs, they contained better advice than anything he could conjure up himself. Best to avoid Hank, though—I’m so lonesome I could cry. I’ll never get out of this world alive. I don’t care if tomorrow never comes. Poor old Hank, not good mental fodder for a man who had just tried to jump off a”
― Kate Atkinson, Big Sky