Quotes from Craig Silvey

See, most people you meet, they'll talk to you through fifty layers of gauze and tinting. Sometimes you know they're lying even before they've started speaking. And it seems the older they get, the more brazen and desperate folks become, and they lie about things that don't even matter... I don't know. Maybe they just get so used to it they don't even notice. Maybe it's like a creeping curse and the more you do it, the easier it gets. What's amazing is that they think they're fooling anybody.

I collect words and lock them away, stored like a hoard of gems.

What I'm feeling, I think, is joy. And it's been some time since I've felt that blinkered rush of happiness. This might be one of those rare events that lasts, one that'll be remembered and recalled as months and years wind and ravel. One of those sweet, significant moments that leaves a footprint in your mind.

I'm excited but afraid. I long to turn and wedge myself through the horse's arse from which I've just fallen, to sit safe in the hot womb of my room. But this is Jasper Jones, and he and come to me .

I force a smile and hold up my hand, which must end up looking like some sort of strange, leery wince, like I've just swallowed a glass of somebody's urine and I'm recommending it.

I bid you a Jew.

Tongues were wagging. Aspersions were being cast like dandelion spores on hot gossipy winds.

So how come people fall out of love, do you think? I don't know. It's true that people change. Or people don't change when you hoped they might. Or they find somebody else they like better. Or people just grow apart, they lose interest in each other's lives. Maybe they realise they made a mistake. There are lots of reasons.

I wonder if I'll ever be without fear… Maybe it's not about being without it. Maybe it's about how well you walk with the weight.

I need to narrow things down, start pruning back. Until then, I'm a whirring zoetrope of half-thoughts and worries.

I mean, I know people have always bin afraid of me. Kids specially, but old people too. Wary. They reckon I'm just half an animal with half a vote. That I'm no good. And I always used to think, why? They don't even know me. Nobody does. It never made sense. But then I realized, that's exactly why. That's all it is. It's so stupid, Charlie. But it means I don't hate them anymore.

See, most people you meet, they'll talk to you through fifty layers of gauze and tinting. Sometimes you know they're lying even before they've started speaking. And it seems the older they get, the more brazen and desperate folks become, and they lie about things that don't even matter.

I thought that having someone to love, having someone love me back, made me a stronger person. But it was the opposite. It made me weaker because it led me to believe that I couldn't survive without those things. And I spent so long afraid of being alone that I never did anything for myself. I never did anything with myself, which made it all the easier to believe I wasn't capable.

I think most of the time when I'm yelling at my husband, I'm just yelling at myself.

Like, I know I'm unbearably obnoxious at home, but I'm actually pretty shy out there. I'm like the chubby quiet brown girl who is decent academically, but who never risks venturing an opinion. It's weird, because, like, in a world full of frost giants and dwarves and demons and spellcasting, my fantasies were really about being a confident, decisive person who had their shit together and was listened to.

And it happens like that. Like when you first realise that there is no such thing as magic.

Because a girl goes missing in this town and it's Jasper Jones who is held and threatened and belted for days, but somehow those monsters will arouse no suspicion.

The less you know, the further away you are, the easier it is to shrug and tut and move on. And so Corrigan remains a town of barnacles. A cluster of hard shells that suck themselves stuck and clench themselves shut and choose not to know about dying.

That's what you do, right? When you're readin. You're seeing what it's like for other people.

Everyone deserves to walk their own path.

Cricket is the most repetitive enterprise in history.

Find out who you are, and live that life.

See, everyone here's afraid of something and nuthin. This town, that's how they live, and they don't even know it. They stick to what they know, what they bin told. They don't unnerstand that it's just a choice you make.

It's better to shut up and appear stupid than open your mouth and remove all doubt.