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Ghostwritten QUOTES

Ghostwritten QUOTES

1 " Integrity is a bugger, it really is. Lying can get you into difficulties, but to really wind up in the crappers try telling nothing but the truth. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

2 " There are different ways people make this place. Sweat, exercise and pain is one way. You can see them in the gyms, in the well-ordered swimming pools. You can see them jogging in the small, worn parks. Another way to make your place is TV. A bright, brash place, always well lit, full of fun and jokes that tell you when to laugh so you never miss them. World news carefully edited so that it’s not too disturbing, but disturbing enough to make you glad that you weren’t born in a foreign country. News with music to tell you who to hate, who to feel sorry for, and who laugh at. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

3 " Always, it is the poor people who pay. And always, it is the poor people's women who pay the most. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

4 " A weapon men use against women is the refusal to take them seriously. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

5 " The silences after his last gasp were sung together by a blackbird. I lay there, my eyes unable to close. His were unable to open. I listed the places where I hurt, and how much. My loins felt ripped. Something inside had torn. There were seven places on my body where he had sunk his fangs into my skin and bitten. He'd dug his nails into my neck, and twisted my head to one side, and clawed my face. I hadn't made a noise. He had made all the noise for both of us. Had it hurt him? "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

6 " Sometimes John had recorded new compositions, or lines from his new poems. Sometimes he'd just record a busy night in The Green Man. Sometimes sheep, seals, skylarks, the wind turbine. If Liam were home there would be some Liam. The summer fair. The Fastnet Race. I would unfold my map of Clear Island. Those tapes prised the lid off homesickness and rattled out the contents, but always at the bottom was solace. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

7 " The double-crossed, might-have-been history of my country is not the study of what actually took place here: it's the study of historians' studies. . . .
Memories are their own descendants masquerading as the ancestors of the present. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

8 " There's no future in stories...Stories are things of the past, things for museums. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

9 " I added 'writers' to my list of people not to trust. They make everything up. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

10 " If you’re in your life, chance. Viewed from the outside, like a book you’re reading, it’s fate all the way. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

11 " London is a language. I guess all places are. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

12 " Sometimes language can't even read the music of meaning. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

13 " But this isn't a ghost story: the ghost is in the background, where she has to be. If she was in the foreground she'd be a person. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

14 " When you write it, don't write it in the manner of a spooky story. Don't try to give an explanation. Just say that I don't know what to make of it, just write it like I tell it, so the reader can make up his own mind. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

15 " Taro taught me that people respect spirit, but even cowards don't respect cowards. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

16 " Right, my phone. When these things first appeared, they were so cool. Only when it was too late did people realize they are as cool as electronic tags on remand prisoners. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

17 " I wonder who had the first computer dream, where, and when? I wonder if computers ever dream of humans. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

18 " Is peace of mind the co-workability of your laws? "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

19 " This, explained the angel, is hell. The people do not love each other. They only want to feed themselves. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten

20 " Humans live in a pit of cheating, exploiting, hurting, incarcerating. Every time, the species wastes some part of what it could be. This waste is poisonous. "

― David Mitchell , Ghostwritten