Quotes from David Nicholls

Oh you know me. I have no emotions. I'm a robot. Or a nun. A robot nun.

And then she frowned, and shook her head, then put her arms around him once more, pressing her face into his shoulder, making a noise that sounded almost like rage. 'What's up?' he asked. 'Nothing. Oh, nothing. Just...' She looked up at him. 'I thought I'd finally got rid of you.' 'I don't think you can.' he said

And of course there is always joy in witnessing the joy of others.

Their friendship was like a wilted bunch of flowers that she insisted on topping up with water. Why not let it die instead?

Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately and fully and well. Experience new things. Love and be loved, if you ever get the chance.

Better by far to be good and courageous and bold and to make difference. Not change the world exactly, but the bit around you.

Call me sentimental, but there's no-one in the world that I'd like to see get dysentery more than you

Be nice wont you?" "I am nice, I'm always nice." "But not too nice. I mean don't make a religion out of it, niceness.

She glanced at the other diners, all of them going into their act, and thought is this what it all boils down to? Romantic love, is this all it is, a talent show?

…and you smile back and try not to think about the fact that you have nothing, absolutely nothing, to say to each other.

Screenwriting is always about what people say or do, whereas good writing is about a thought process or an abstract image or an internal monologue, none of which works on screen.

If there's anything I'm keen to get better at in my writing, then it's the writing of prose as opposed to the writing of dialogue.

Envy was just the tax you paid on success.

He wanted to live life in such a way that if a photograph were taken at random, it would be a cool photograph.

I love Billy Wilder, and I love the way that his films can be very touching and very moving and very romantic, and at the same time there's always a little cynical undertone, there's always something that undercuts things.

An adaptation leads the cinema-goer to the original to find out what they're missing and if they already know the book, it can still illuminate a theme, a character, an idea.

Time to tidy up your life. Time to start again.

At some point you'll have to get serious about life.

The attraction of a life devoted to sensation, pleasure and self would probably wear thin one day, but there was still plenty of time for that yet.

you feel a little bit lost right now about what to do with your life, a bit rudderless and oarless and aimless but that's okay that's alright because we're all meant to be like that at twenty-four.

You can't throw away years of your life because it makes a funny anecdote.

Read a book at the right age and it will stay with you for life.

As a matter of fact, I think there are more things important in life than "relationships.

Well, it's so hard for books to take off. You give years of your life to something that probably won't happen, so when it does, it feels a little unjust.