And Then I Woke Up Quotes

“Maybe we’ll all have to get used to the uncertainty. Maybe that’s what frightens me. The way you can get used to anything if you’ve got nothing better to gravitate toward.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“A story told under duress is not the story ready to be told.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“If you’re the sort of person who sees blood and monsters rather than somebody real? What does that say about us, I wonder? What does that say about me? Does it take a certain sort of mindset to succumb to that sort of narrative? A certain sort of vulnerability to look at someone, a group of people and think: monster, zombie, Other.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“Isn’t it beautiful how stories can work like that? The subtle way they help the teller, the subversive way they reach the listener, how they creep inside you like waking dreams.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“the problem with the truth was that it was so poorly written”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“Relationships aren't scientific, they're not mathematical. They're chaotic, abstract, irrational.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“Macey once told me the program with the truth was that it was so poorly written. Given the choice, the pleasantly told lie is always more seductive. That's why religion is so potent, she said. Why history and science are still considered up for debate. Myth is more appealing than verified truth because the grey areas between the facts can still be used against us.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“There was a strange and disquieting quality to her silence. It was seductive. Like the patch of darkness you can see through an apen window that you keep staring at because you have an idea something might appear there.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“Macey once told me that the worst way a story can end is by someone waking up and realising everything that happened was only a dream.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“She once told me when you say you’re going to tell people a horror story, they sit up in their chairs defensively, waiting to see you fail. When you tell them it’s a love story, they relax, they open themselves wide.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“When I was a kid, I told myself I would never get married, I would never have kids, I would never work in an office, I would never own a flat or a house or a car. I would live abroad, somewhere tropical. I would get a deep tan all over and I would live in a hut on a beach and every morning I would go down to the surf and swim, which would make me lean and fit and unafraid. I would collect shells and line them up along the wall in my home. I would learn to fish. I would learn to sing. I would watch the stars come out as the day began to fade and I would listen to the curl of the ocean tide long into the night. There would be something about the isolation of it all that I was certain I would find beauty in.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“the worst way a story can end is by someone waking up and realising everything that happened was only a dream.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“The narrative had focussed her to such an extent she only saw what it needed her to see to sustain itself.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“They liked the weapons she had forged herself; they couldn’t stand the way she chose to wield them.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“It's only that I don't trust dreams. I don't think it's fair they don't really mean anything.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“It had already started. The world was tipping, its weight shifting, and no one had noticed how precarious the ground beneath our feet had become. Every image, every video feed, everything we heard and read seemed to have two sides. Each piece of evidence divided us, and with each line drawn, a wider slice of reality was thrown into question. The truth became slippery, as though the information itself had become a carrier. With each broadcast, the gleam in one person’s eye found a home in a multitude of others. And with enough confusion, enough doubt, well . . . that’s when the believers started to take charge”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“It had already started. The world was tipping, its weight shifting, and no
one had noticed how precarious the ground beneath our feet had become.
Every image, every video feed, everything we heard and read seemed to
have two sides. Each piece of evidence divided us, and with each line
drawn, a wider slice of reality was thrown into question. The truth became
slippery, as though the information itself had become a carrier. With each
broadcast, the gleam in one person’s eye found a home in a multitude of
others. And with enough confusion, enough doubt, well . . . that’s when the
believers started to take charge”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“She nearly spat. “I’m not working in a bookshop,” she said. “Every asshole in my class wants to work in a bookshop. ‘It would be my dream job! I write books, I sell books.’ Please. People who work in bookshops are the worst. They’re . . . I dunno, capitalist librarians.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“Night means darkness, darkness means introspection, introspection dredges up all kinds of monsters and my god, do those bastards keep us busy until dawn.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“The thing about new people in the group was that it was another opportunity for the rest of us to tell our own stories again. We're hungry for fresh listeners, because the more you tell your own story, the more it makes sense to you...”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“. . . it’s those differences — even the smallest and most trivial — that scare us the
most.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“We were monsters once, and although we are not anymore, we know we remain unforgiven.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“History is one long string of stories honed to sharpen one side over another.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“Put your hand up if you sleep soundly every night. See? Me neither. And no wonder. Night means darkness, darkness means introspection, introspection dredges up all kinds of monsters and my god, do those bastards keep us busy until dawn.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up

“When I say this is a love story, I mean this is a story about someone who believed in something impossible and beautiful and dangerous with such strength of character and devotion that they followed the thread of it all the way to the very end, no matter what the world threw at them. Whichever way you try to tell it, that sounds like a love story to me.”
― Malcolm Devlin, And Then I Woke Up