Why can’t you just love me? Why can’t you just be in love with me? David Nicholls More Quotes by David Nicholls More Quotes From David Nicholls A joke was not a single-use item but something you brought out again and again until it fell apart in your hand like a cheap umbrella. David Nicholls humor use hands There's something unnatural about a woman finding babies or, more specifically, conversation about babies, boring. They'll think she's bitter, jealous, lonely. But she's also bored of everybody telling her how lucky she is, what with all that sleep and all that freedom and spare time, the ability to go on dates or head off to Paris at a moments notice. It sounds like they're consoling her, and she resents this and feels patronized by it. David Nicholls jealous lonely baby But how can you not like music? That's the same as not liking food! Or sex! David Nicholls sex It's the face itself that I love, not that face at twenty-eight or thirty-four or forty-three. It's that face. David Nicholls eight four three The early days of any relationship are punctuated with a series of firsts - first sight, first words, first laugh, first kiss, first nudity, etc., with these shared landmarks becoming more widely spaced and innocuous as days turn to years, until eventually you're left with first visit to a National Trust property or some such. David Nicholls kissing sight years I had always been led to believe that ageing was a slow and gradual process, the creep of a glacier. Now I realise that it happens in a rush, like snow falling off a roof. David Nicholls snow believe fall A screenplay is really an instruction manual, and it can be interpreted in any number of ways. The casting, the choice of location, the costumes and make-up, the actors' reading of a line or emphasis of a word, the choice of lens and the pace of the cutting - these are all part of the translation. David Nicholls cutting reading numbers I think I became a writer because I used to write letters to my friends, and I used to love writing them. I loved the idea that you can put marks on a page and send it off, and two days later, someone laughs somewhere else in the world. David Nicholls somewhere-else writing thinking Well, I don't think Hollywood's a dirty word at all, I love a lot of Hollywood films. David Nicholls hollywood-films dirty thinking I really was a terrible actor. I did it for years in my twenties because it was like being at university again. David Nicholls actors twenties years I read a lot of F. Scott Fitzgerald. I love 'Tender is the Night,' and its atmosphere of doomed romance. He was one of the greatest prose stylists, with a wonderfully clear but lyrical quality. David Nicholls atmosphere romance night But at the best of times she feels like a character in a Muriel Spark novel — independent, bookish, sharp-minded, secretly romantic. David Nicholls sparks independent character All young people worry about things, it's a natural and inevitable part of growing up, and at the age of sixteen my greatest anxiety in life was that I'd never again achieve anything as good, or pure, or noble, or true, as my O-level results. David Nicholls growing-up worry people I can't believe it's actually happening. This is independent adulthood, this is what it feels like. Shouldn't there be some sort of ritual? In certain remote African tribes there'd be some incredible four day rites of passage ceremony involving tattooing and potent hallucinogenic drugs extracted from tree-frogs, and village elders smearing my body with monkey blood, but here,rites of passage is all about three new pairs of pants and stuffing your duvet in a bin-liner. David Nicholls independent african-tribes believe As new dawns go, this one is depressingly like the old dawn. David Nicholls dawn I still find it absurdly difficult to concentrate on a novel if there's a phone or computer to hand; I have taken to locking them outside the room like noisy pets. David Nicholls phones taken hands but they had also settled into the maddening familiarity of friendship; maddening for her at least. David Nicholls familiarity The attraction of a life devoted to sensation, pleasure and self would probably wear thin one day, but there was still plenty of time for that yet. David Nicholls pleasure one-day self She had never been a proficient flirt. Her spasms of kittenish behaviour were graceless and inept, like normal conversation on roller skates. but the combination of the retsina and sun made Emma feel sentimental and light-headed. She reached for her roller skates. David Nicholls flirting light sun Their friendship was like a wilted bunch of flowers that she insisted on topping up with water. Why not let it die instead? David Nicholls why-not flower water
