At university, I used to write silly little sketches and monologues, but never fiction. David Nicholls More Quotes by David Nicholls More Quotes From David Nicholls You can live your whole life not realizing that what you're looking for is right in front of you. David Nicholls realizing happy life Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately and fully and well. Experience new things. Love and be loved, if you ever get the chance David Nicholls new-years-resolution one-day principles Whatever happens tomorrow, we had today; and I'll always remember it David Nicholls heartache tomorrow today Occasionally, very occasionally, say at four o’clock in the afternoon on a wet Sunday, she feels panic-stricken and almost breathless with loneliness. Once or twice she has been known to pick up the phone to check that it isn’t broken. Sometimes she thinks how nice it would be to be woken by a call in the night: ‘get in a taxi now’ or ‘I need to see you, we need to talk’. But at the best of times she feels like a character in a Muriel Spark novel – independent, bookish, sharp-minded, secretly romantic. David Nicholls nice loneliness character The true writer, the born writer, will scribble words on scraps of litter, the back of a bus tickets, on the wall of a cell. David Nicholls wall cells writing I contemplate the idea that maybe I'm an alcoholic. I get this occassionally, the need to define myself as something-or-the-other, and at various times in my life have wondered if I'm a Goth, a homosexul, a Jew, a Catholic or a manic depressive, whether I am adopted, or have a hole in my heart, or possess the ability to move objects with the power of my mind, and have always, most regretfully, come to the conclusion that I'm none of the above. The fact is I'm actually not ANYTHING. David Nicholls heart ideas moving Just kidding' was exactly what people wrote when they meant every word. David Nicholls people From an evolutionary point of view, most emotions - fear, desire, anger - serve some practical purpose, but nostalgia is a useless, futile thing because it is a longing for something that is permanently lost . . . . David Nicholls useless views desire This is where it all begins. Everything starts here, today. David Nicholls hope today love He wanted to live life in such a way that if a photograph were taken at random, it would be a cool photograph. David Nicholls taken would-be life I applied for the University of Life. Didn't get the grades. David Nicholls university grades It would be inappropiate, undignified, at 38, to conduct friendships or love affairs with the ardour or intensity of a 22 year old. Falling in love like that? Writing poetry? Crying at pop songs? Dragging people into photobooths? Taking a whole day to make a compilation tape? Asking people if they wanted to share your bed, just for company? If you quoted Bob Dylan or TS Eliot or, god forbid, Brecht at someone these days they would smile politely and step quietly backwards, and who would blame them? Ridiculous, at 38, to expect a song or book or film to change your life. David Nicholls falling-in-love song book If you have to keep a secret it's because you shouldn't be doing it in the first place David Nicholls ifs secret firsts An adaptation leads the cinema-goer to the original to find out what they're missing and if they already know the book, it can still illuminate a theme, a character, an idea. David Nicholls character book ideas She drinks pints of coffee and writes little observations and ideas for stories with her best fountain pen on the linen-white pages of expensive notebooks. Sometimes, when it's going badly, she wonders if what she believes to be a love of the written word is really just a fetish for stationery. David Nicholls notebook coffee believe Envy was just the tax you paid on success. David Nicholls taxes envy success She glanced at the other diners, all of them going into their act, and thought is this what it all boils down to? Romantic love, is this all it is, a talent show? David Nicholls diners romantic-love love-is No, friends were like clothes: fine while they lasted but eventually they wore thin or you grew out of them. David Nicholls no-friends clothes friendship Better by far to be good and courageous and bold and to make difference. Not change the world exactly, but the bit around you David Nicholls courageous differences world Screenwriting is always about what people say or do, whereas good writing is about a thought process or an abstract image or an internal monologue, none of which works on screen. David Nicholls abstract writing people
