You were always uncomfortable with the rhetoric of emotion, which is quite a different matter from discomfort with emotion itself. Lionel Shriver More Quotes by Lionel Shriver More Quotes From Lionel Shriver A lot of people get so hung up on what they can't have that they don't think for a second about whether they really want it. Lionel Shriver jealousypeoplethinking In a country that doesn't discriminate between fame and infamy, the latter presents itself as plainly more achievable. Lionel Shriver latterfamecountry Funny how you dig yourself into a hole by the teaspoon. Lionel Shriver teaspoonsholes But what's so great about being a perfectionist?... You do all this work, and then the stuff you've made just pisses you off. Lionel Shriver perfectionistmadestuff Reading time is precious. Don't waste it. Reading bad books, or books that are wrong for a certain time in your life, can dangerously turn you off the activity altogether. Lionel Shriver wastereadingbook It's far less important to me to be liked these days than to be understood. Lionel Shriver understoodthese-daysimportant Time itself made all things rare. Lionel Shriver self-madeall-thingsmade Only a country that feels invulnerable can afford political turmoil as entertainment. Lionel Shriver entertainmentpoliticalcountry Holocausts do not amaze me. Rapes and child slavery do not amaze me. And Franklin, I know you feel otherwise, but Kevin does not amaze me. I am amazed when I drop a glove in the street and a teenager runs two blocks to return it. I am amazed when a checkout girl flashes me a wide smile with my change, though my own face had been a mask of expedience. Lost wallets posted to their owners, strangers who furnish meticulous directions, neighbors who water each other's houseplants - these things amaze me. Lionel Shriver girlrunningchildren It isn't very nice to admit, but domestic violence has its uses. So raw and unleashed, it tears away the veil of civilization that comes between us as much as it makes life possible. A poor substitute for the sort of passion we like to extol perhaps, but real love shares more in common with hatred and rage than it does with geniality or politeness. Lionel Shriver passionnicereal ...You can only subject people to anguish who have a conscience. You can only punish people who have hopes to frustrate or attachments to sever; who worry what you think of them. You can really only punish people who are already a little bit good. Lionel Shriver attachmentlifethinking My own apathy is bone chilling. Lionel Shriver boneschillapathy Desire is one of the burning experiences of human life. Lionel Shriver human-lifeburningdesire Got nothing to do with trying. You like someone, or you don't. If you're 'trying', you don't. Lionel Shriver ifstrying Kevin was a shell game in which all three cups were empty. Lionel Shriver shellsthreegames You were ambitious - for your life, what it was like when you woke up in the morning, and not for some attainment. Like most people who did not answer a particular calling from an early age, you placed work beside yourself; any occupation would fill up your day but not your heart. I liked that about you. I liked it enormously. Lionel Shriver heartmorningpeople Everything people do that doesn’t work has to be somebody else’s fault. Next time you know, geezers’ll be suing the government for getting old and kids’ll be taking their mommies to court because they came out ugly. Lionel Shriver governmentkidspeople Funny how the nature of a normal day is the first memory to fade. Lionel Shriver normalmemoriesfirsts Now that children don't till your fields or take you in when you're incontinent, there is no sensible reason to have them, and it's amazing that with the advent of effective contraception anyone chooses to reproduce at all. Lionel Shriver adventfieldschildren You can call it innocence, or you can call it gullibility, but Celia made the most common mistake of the good-hearted: she assumed that everyone else was just like her. Lionel Shriver like-herinnocencemistake
