Quotes from David Nicholls

If you have to keep something a secret it's because you shouldn't be doing it in the first place!

No more sleepovers, no more writing poetry, no more wasting time. Time to tidy up your life. Time to start again.

O meu plano, idealmente, era trazer aqui a Alice num encontro, mas é bom fazer um voo experimental com outra pessoa primeiro, para poder determinar antecipadamente as minhas reacções espontâneas.

também tem assim um jeito de mexer nos brinquinhos de botão de prata enquanto fala, que é indicativo de uma atracção subconsciente em relação a mim, ou de um furo ligeiramente infectado.

Independência é o luxo de todas aquelas pessoas que são demasiado confiantes e atarefadas e populares e atraentes para serem apenas o simples e batido "sozinhas".

You said yourself, people change, no use getting sentimental about it. Move on, find someone else.

She made you decent. And in return you made her so, so happy.

That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it and think how different its course would have been.

We can just hang out and walk and read and talk and stuff.

In portraiture I look for people that I recognise – 'Look, it's Uncle Tony' – or for the faces of film stars. The Madame Tussaud's school of art appreciation.

Then they kiss again, and she goes to work, and he goes to work, and so the days go by, faster than ever.

Vivi ogni giorno come se fosse l'ultimo", di solito il consiglio era questo, ma chi aveva l'energia sufficiente per farlo? E se pioveva o eri di cattivo umore? Era poco pratico. Molto meglio cercare di essere coraggiosi e audaci e cambiare le cose in meglio. Non proprio il mondo, ma il pezzettino intorno a te. Coltiva le amicizia, non tradire i tuoi principi, vivi intensamente, appassionatamente. Un giorno

This, I thought, is why we have comfort zones, because they are comfortable. What can possibly be gained by leaving them?

the crucial thing about an education is the opportunity tat it brings, the doors it opens, because otherwise knowledge, in and of itself, is a blind alley

While there was breath in my body, she would never lack sufficient AA batteries.

The truth is that my heart felt like a fist trying to punch its way though my rib-cage - not from the excitement of it all, though it was thrilling, but from a sense that finally, finally something good was about to happen to me. I felt the proximity of change, and I had wanted more than anything for something in my life to change. Is it still possible to feel like that, I wonder? Or does it only happen to us once?

Nevertheless she feels a great wave of affection for Dexter Mayhew. In eight years not a day has gone by when she hasn't thought of him. She misses him and she wants him back. I want my best friend back, she thinks, because without him nothing is good and nothing is right.

What if life had taken a different route? What is had preserved with those letters to publishers when she was twenty-two? Might it have been Emma, instead of Stephanie Shaw, eating Pret A Manger sandwiches in a pencil skirt? For some time now she has had conviction that life is about to change if only because it must, and perhaps this it, perhaps this meeting is the new start.

I suppose the important thing is to make some sort of difference,' she said. 'You know, actually change something.' 'What, like "change the world", you mean?' 'Not the whole entire world. Just the little bit around you.

And by the time the train pulls into the station, I find myself actually relieved that Emily's only a figment of my imagination.

You should visit the Palatine. It's at the top of that hill . . ." "I know where the Palatine is, Dexter, I was visiting Rome before you were born." "Yes, who was emperor back then?

It's scented! Your wedding invitations are scented?" "It's meant to be lavender." "No, Dex - it's money. It smells of money.

But Dexter blinked hard, shook his head then nudged her hand with his. 'So what I thought we'd do for the next couple of days is, you can show me the sights, and I'll just mope about and make stupid remarks.' She smiled and nudged his hand back. 'It's hardly surprising what you've been through, are going through,' and she covered his hand with her own.

The enemy, self-consciousness, is creeping up on them and Gibbsy or Biggsy is the first to crack, declaring that the music is shit and everyone stops dancing immediately as if a spell has been broken.