It wasn't about believing this or that, it wasn't even about good and evil and right and wrong, it was about finding the strength to bear the discomfort that came with being in the world. Mark Haddon More Quotes by Mark Haddon More Quotes From Mark Haddon And this shows that sometimes people want to be stupid and they do not want to know the truth. Mark Haddon stupid want people Use your imagination and you'll see that even the most narrow, humdrum lives are infinite in scope if you examine them with enough care. Mark Haddon care imagination use I am atheist in a very religious mould. I'm always asking myself the big questions. Where did we come from? Is there a meaning to all of this? I read the King James Bible, as all English writers should. And when I find myself in church, I edit the hymns as I sing them. Mark Haddon hymns atheist religious ..and only sticks and stones can break my bones. Mark Haddon bones sticks stones No one wants to know how clever you are. They don't want an insight into your mind, thrilling as it might be. They want an insight into their own. Mark Haddon literature clever mind ...and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything Mark Haddon i-can mean book There was a time in my life when I was going in and out of houses that were extraordinarily different - from a working-class terrace in Northampton to the homes of friends who were really very wealthy. It was quite an odd position to be in, I realise looking back, and quite a nice one. Mark Haddon nice home class Siobhan also says that if you close your mouth and breathe out loudly through your nose it can mean that you are relaxed, or that you are bored, or that you are angry and it all depends on how much air comes out of your nose and how fast and what shape your mouth is when you do it and how you are sitting and what you just said before and hundreds of other things which are too complicated to work out in a few seconds. Mark Haddon work-out air mean Eventually scientists will discover something that explains ghosts, just like they discovered electricity, which explained lightning, and it might be something about people's brains, or something about the earth's magnetic field, or it might be some new force altogether. And then ghosts won't be mysteries. They will be like electricity and rainbows and nonstick frying pans. Mark Haddon rainbow brain people It exasperated her sometimes. The way men could be so sure of themselves. They put words together like sheds or shelves and you could stand on them they were so solid. And those feelings which overwhelmed you in the small hours turned to smoke. Mark Haddon together feelings men Being clever was when you looked at how things were and used the evidence to work out something new. Mark Haddon work-out something-new clever People think that alien spaceships would be solid and made of metal and have lights all over them and move slowly through the sky because that is how we would build a spaceship if we were able to build one that big. But aliens, if they exist, would probably be very different from us. They might look like big slugs, or be flat like reflections. Or they might be bigger than planets. Or they might not have bodies at all. They might just be information, like in a computer. And their spaceships might look like clouds, or be made up of unconnected objects like dust or leaves. Mark Haddon reflection moving thinking Usually people look at you when they're talking to you. I know that they're working out what I'm thinking, but I can't tell what they're thinking. It is like being in a room with a one-way mirror in a spy film. Mark Haddon mirrors talking thinking Most murders are committed by someone who is known to the victim. In fact, you are most likely to be murdered by a member of your own family on Christmas day. Mark Haddon murder victim facts You love someone, you've got to let something go. Mark Haddon passenger-seat love-someone He really did not care whether he survived or not, so long as it rendered him unconscious and absolved him of responsibility. Mark Haddon care responsibility long I could invent another world. I'm not terribly keen on this one. Mark Haddon another-world world But in life you have to take lots of decisions and if you don't take decisions you would never do anything because you would spend all your time choosing between things you could do. So it is good to have a reason why you hate some things and you like others. Mark Haddon hate decision reason-why And I go out of Father's house and I walk down the street, and it is very quiet even thought it is the middle of the day and I can't hear any noise except birds singing and wind and sometimes buildings falling down in the distance, and if I stand very close to traffic lights I can hear a little click as the colors change. Mark Haddon distance father fall How pleased we are to have our eyes opened but how easily we close them again. Mark Haddon eye