Home > Author > Catriona Ward
1 " I don't know what it's like for other people, but love and nausea are often indistinguishable to me "
― Catriona Ward , Sundial
2 " Clocks are everywhere if you know how to recognize them. A dandelion is a clock, obviously. Rice pouring into a bowl is a clock, each grain marking the passage of time. A school assignment, an apple as it withers, a tree waiting for spring. Each of these things measures living moments, what remains before death. Tick, tock. "
3 " Anyway the trick to life is, if you don’t like what is happening, go back to sleep until it stops. "
― Catriona Ward , The Last House on Needless Street
4 " The young feel pain intensely, I think, because they don’t know yet how deep it can go. "
5 " How many times can someone bend before they break forever? You have to take care, dealing with broken things; sometimes they give way, and break others in their turn. "
6 " I like this kind of place, where you’re in between one thing and another. Hallways, waiting rooms, lobbies and so on; rooms where nothing is actually supposed to happen. It relieves a lot of pressure and lets me think. "
7 " Thoughts are a door that the dead walk through. "
8 " Everything in life is a rehearsal for loss. Only the smart people know it. "
9 " I’ll tell you a secret, kitten. Everyone feels like that sometimes. Sometimes things get bad, and you can’t see a future ahead. It’s all cloudy, like the sky on a rainy day. But life moves very fast. Things never stay the same forever, even the bad things. The clouds will blow away. They always do, I promise. "
10 " The first thing I hate is called a Russian doll. It holds a smaller version of itself inside it, and another inside that and so on. How awful. They are prisoners. I imagine them all screaming in the dark, unable to move or speak. The doll’s face is broad and blankly smiling. It looks so happy to be holding its children captive. "
11 " I don’t recall names but I have my ways of judging and remembering people. The first one is: would they be kind to my cat? "
12 " I had always felt that there was something wrong with me. I was like one of the tracings I did on her baking paper, a bad one, where the comic book underneath slipped; the lines slewed across the page, and the picture became a monstrous version of itself. "
13 " There’s a monster inside each of us,’ he says. 'If you let yours out, Ted, it might not eat you. "
14 " I judge people two ways—on how they treat animals, and on what they like to eat. If their favorite food is some kind of salad, they are definitely a bad person. Anything with cheese, they are probably OK. "
15 " It is a kind of privilege, to witness the darkness. "
― Catriona Ward , Little Eve
16 " Anyway the trick to life is, if you don't like what is happening, go back to sleep until it stops. From a cat. "
17 " Kids are mirrors, reflecting back everything that happens to them. You’ve got to make sure they’re surrounded by good things. "
18 " I think I would do OK in prison, because I like small enclosed spaces and being alone. "
19 " That is when it happened. A soft white glow gathered on his chest, over the place where his heart must be. The glow became a cord, reaching out through the air. The cord approached me. I rowed and struggled. But I was held fast. I felt the light encircle my neck, link me to his heart. It didn’t hurt. It bound us together. I don’t know if he felt it too – I like to think he did. Then he brought me home to this nice warm house where I can sleep all the time and get stroked. I don’t even have to look at the outside world if I don’t want to! The windows are all boarded up. Ted made me an indoor cat and I’ve never had to worry about anything since. This is our house which is just for us, and no one else is allowed in. Apart from Night-time, of course, and the green boys and Lauren. I could do without some of them, to be honest. I "
20 " Children are like a chain around your heart or neck, and they pull you in every direction. "
