Quotes from Lionel Shriver

Later these thoughts would come back to haunt me, though I could not have anticipated that your compulsion to manhandle your unruly, misshapen experience into a tidy box, like someone trying to cram a wild tangle of driftwood into a hard-shell Samsonite suitcase, as well as this sincere confusion of the is with the ought to be—your heartrending tendency to mistake what you actually had for what you desperately wanted—would produce such devastating consequences.

I'd no idea that you'd prove such an able apprentice. You were sure to be a journalist, in which case the chances were terribly high that you'd also be a prat.

There's no better way to get people to cooperate in this country than by seeming a little unhinged.

lackadaisically;

The feeling was not of being attractive precisely, but rather of not having to entertain. It was breathtaking: to be ensconced in another person's company, yet to be relieved of the relentless minute-by-minute obligation to redeem one's existence - for there is some sense in which socially we are all on the Late Show, grinning, throwing off nervous witticisms, and crossing our legs, as a big hook behind the curtains lurks in the wings.

His face churned. That was the point, before he said a word, that he broke her heart. The contortion of those muscles paraded a decision over whether to tell her the truth. Once he finally spoke, Lawrence's opting for the honesty route didn't nearly compensate for the fact that candor had been a choice. For an alternative direction to have beckoned, it was probably well trod.

This sounds idiotic, but every time I encounter a picture of myself I am shocked to have been seen.

If you take that away from me, and every other opportunity to not quite toe the line," Willing said, "then however many amusing things I'm at liberty to do, I don't feel free. If I don't feel free, I'm not free." I don't feel free, Willing did not add, and I have not felt free since you and yours jammed this fleck of metal into my neck.

The fact that my clothing has been visually available to other people I do not find upsetting. The body is another matter. It is mine; I have found it useful; but it is an avatar.

To the degree that Lawrence's face was familiar, it was killingly so - as if she had been gradually getting to know him for over nine years and then, bang, he was known.

And that was your perspective on your country as well: that it was not forever. That of course it was an empire, though that was nothing to be ashamed of. History is made of empires, and the United States was by far and away the greatest, richest, and fairest empire that had ever dominated the earth. Inevitably, it would fall. Empires always did. But we were lucky, you said. We got to participate in the most fascinating social experiment ever attempted.

Envuelta en papel celofán, la buena vida era un regalo envenenado.

Puesto que el resentimiento produce el equivalente psíquico de la acidez, a Glynis le molestaba el propio resentimiento. No haber tenido nunca mucho de que quejarse con razón era una razón más para sentirse ofendida.

One of the most dreadful side effects of suspended animation was a horrifying inability to lie to himself. He had been neither a socialist nor an egalitarian. He had espoused socialism in the interest of his own glorification, and he had always felt superior to everyone else.

Hay algo especialmente terrible en el hecho de que te digan una y otra vez que tienes la vida más maravillosa del mundo y que ni siquiera así esa vida mejore y siga siendo una mierda.

Según el gilipollas del jefe, de lo que se trataba era precisamente de malgastar el dinero. Una empresa que mantiene en su local una temperatura tropical en pleno enero, y ártica en agosto, alentaba a los clientes a creer que el negocio iba viento en popa. Era un signo de prosperidad, igual que estar gordo solía ser símbolo de abundancia. Antes uno se podía permitir sobrealimentarse; ahora se podía permitir sobrecalefaccionarse.

No obstante, incluso cuando los médicos se hacían los amables, no solían controlar el alcance de su capacidad para serlo. Por muy gentilmente que se expresaran, más de un mensaje de los que se veían obligados a comunicar era cruel, y si no, una mentira y, por tanto, aún más cruel. Personalmente Shep no entendía por qué alguien querría ser médico.

Picture how bitterly hordes of the frustrated, disappointed, and dispossessed would greet any complaint about being too satisfied and too wealthy. Be that as it may, it really isn't a very nice sensation not to want anything. Thwarted hopes are no picnic, but desire itself is energizing.

La idea es conseguir que quien compra tu libro se sienta un poco menos infeliz porque ahora sabe que es un infeliz, a diferencia de todos los demás, que son tan infelices que ni siquiera saben que lo son.

Y cómo se supone que uno puede ser «comprensivo» antes de comprender?

Era uno de esos tipos con una conversación increíblemente lúcida, pero que se paralizaban ante el teclado. Era extraño cómo algunas personas podían ser tan parlanchinas y expresarse tan bien cuando estaban de palique por la calle y, sin embargo, ser incapaces de escribir una frase con sentido aun cuando en ello les fuera la vida.

Just because you learn something in adulthood doesn't mean it's fake.

Ahora bien, esos tipos, los hippies, sí que eran gorrones. Siempre pidiendo dinero, o robándolo, fomentando el libre esto y el libre lo otro, hablando por los codos del anticapitalismo que sólo habían hecho posible los padres trabajadores a los que esquilmaban.

Even if he doesn't go to college, he could at least learn to make something. Nobody in this country knows how to sink a nail anymore. They're all dependent on the tradesmen their kids are taught not to become.