Quotes from Bernardine Evaristo

what could I say to Clovis? a woman had to obey her husband in those days, Rachel divorce was shameful and only granted on the grounds of adultery, if a marriage didn't work out, it was a life sentence

you can't sleep here because your colour will come off on the sheets, said the woman who had a sign for lodgings in her window, people was that rude and ignorant back then, they spoke their mind and didn't care that they hurt you because there was no anti-discrimination laws to stop them the only thing you can do is leave here and never come back, the policeman advised us when we went to complain

if she can't get a proper boyfriend at nineteen what hope is there for when she's older?

I just want to be myself, Bibi wow, talk about low ambitions, don't you want to change the world?

he's straight-backed, thanks to monthly Alexander Technique sessions to counteract what he calls academic hunchback syndrome

even at the park the mothers got tired of calling their own children away from ours as if they might catch leprosy very small children don't care about skin colour, Rachel, until they're brainwashed by their parents

grateful that as soon as she stepped off the plane to walk into the blast of heat, her arthritic joints stopped playing up haven't so much as muttered a word of protest since grateful that the sale of the house in London allowed them to buy this one by the beach

She slipped free crusty pies filled with apple-flavored lumps of sugar to the runaway rent boys she befriended who operated around the station With no idea that in years to come she'd be attending their funerals They didn't realize unprotected sex meant a dance with death Nobody did

Danny-Boy, I want to tell him, unlike you flawless teenagers, we adults can be contradictory fools. We fuck up. Sorry to fall off the Pedestal of Perfection, Sonny-Jim, but all we trying a-do is stop you from fucking up too.

Anima is walking along the promenade of the waterway that bisects her city, a few early morning barges cruise slowly by

and she asked herself – how can I rise above my situation in order to raise my child as the sole wage-earner in a parenting situation of one?

to choose such a brutal and dramatic finale Carole knows what drives people to such despair, knows what it's like to appear normal but to feel herself swaying just one leap away from the amassed crowds on the platforms who carry enough hope in their hearts to stay alive swaying just one leap away from eternal peace

He pointed out that the mattress in the master boudoir was handspring with each spring wrapped in cashmere It's like sleeping on air, Miss Williams, he said as he showed her the suite's 'menu of pillows' on a silver-embossed card As if she was the kind of woman who'd amputate her aspirations to become one of his decorative appendages She had to politely extricate herself from his intentions without jeopardizing the business

Penelope found it hard to imagine her mother had once been so rebellious and gregarious she felt sorry for her having to choose between a career or a family which seemed terribly unfair

threw in quotes he attributed to Derrida and Heidegger for good measure, which he always does when he can't handle a tricky situation

Nenet always insisted she was Mediterranean

London that evening

Bibi replied, gender's a social construction, most of us are born male or female but the concepts of masculinity and femininity are society's inventions, none of it is innate, are you following? no, not really

she raised the issue of returning to her job as a teacher with him, it's not like we can't afford a childminder he replied that it was impractical to have two masters: a boss at work and a husband was he joking? not by the look on his face

hey, we're all fucked up, aren't we? she said dipping her bread so far into her soup it drowned and couldn't easily be rescued.

With Augustine in her life, Bummi did not feel so alone They were two halves of a circle moving towards completion

Shirley had long felt angry on behalf of her brothers who'd also been harassed by the police since they were young all black men had to learn to handle it, all black men had to be tough and when the police killed or beat someone, they were allowed to investigate themselves, and exonerated the accused

from a child's perspective all adults are old and fat

Some folk have to react against something: parents, siblings, government, society. They think they have free will, when all they doing is wilfully opposing.