Quotes from Marina Lewycka

Mother, who had never missed a chance to fulminate against the evils of our time including privatisation, Jeremy Clarkson, and pay-day loans.

I don't know what my sister thinks about feminism.

Do people ever make each other happy, Sid, or is happiness just something that's lurking there inside you all the time, waiting for the right moment to come out? Like worms in compost?

Ja, Len. Das Land geht vor die Hunde. Und die Ausländer und die Wellensittiche sind schuld daran." Er rieb sich die Stirn. "Warum die Wellensittiche, Bert?" "Warum die Ausländer, Len?" Ich grinste. "Sie können nicht gleichzeitig Sozialschmarotzer sei und uns bei den Löhnen unterbieten.

Es war nicht Backstein und Beton, die aus diesem Gebäude ein Zuhause machten, es war das Netz der Menschen und dieses komische Wort, das die laute Gladys auf ein Stück Stoff gestickt hatte: GEMEINSINN.

Why you have such bourgeois preoccupation with all personal history?' 'Because it's important... it defines... it helps us understand... because we can learn... Oh, I don't know.

Now I had discovered something even better - polymerisation depends on sharing. An atom which is short of an electron looks out for another atom that's got the right sort of electron (it's called covalency, for the chemically inclined), then the atom grabs the electron it needs. But no theft or nastiness is involved. Two atoms end up sharing the electron, and that's what holds all the atoms together in one beautiful long endlessly repeating dance - the beauty of glue!

No, it's the same people who are always in power, Vera. Sometimes they call themselves communists, sometimes capitalists, sometimes devoutly religious—whatever they need to be to hang on to power. The former communists in Russia are the same people who own all the industries now. They're the real rip-off merchants. But the professional middle classes, people like Valentina's husband, have been hardest hit.