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At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5) QUOTES

At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5) QUOTES

1 " With her curling blond hair and her slender limbs and her beautiful clothes, Inez was alluring in an obvious way, and yet it was easy enough to see that her slightly protruding blue eyes were blank screens of self-love on which a small selection of fake emotions was allowed to flicker. "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)

2 " Above all, she was a baby, not a 'big baby' like so many adults, but a small baby perfectly preserved in the pickling jar of money, alcohol and fantasy. "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)

3 " Every paradise demands a serpent. "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)

4 " It’s the hardest addiction of all,’ said Patrick. ‘Forget heroin. Just try giving up irony, that deep-down need to mean two things at once, to be in two places at once, not to be there for the catastrophe of a fixed meaning. "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)

5 " What if memories were just memories, without any consolatory or persecutory power? Would they exist at all, or was it always emotional pressure that summoned images from what was potentially all of experience so far? "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)

6 " Suicide wore the mask of self-rejection; but in reality nobody took their personality more seriously than the person who was planning to kill himself on its instructions. Nobody was more determined to stay in charge at any cost, to force the most mysterious aspect of life into their own imperious schedule. "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)

7 " He knew as deeply as he knew anything that sedation was the prelude to anxiety, stimulation the prelude to exhaustion and consolation the prelude to disappointment, and so he lay on the red velvet sofa and did nothing to distract himself from the news of his mother’s death. "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)

8 " Good morning. Is the sun a little brighter, there is Friendship? Is the air a little fresher? Is your home a little sweeter? Is your housework somewhat easier? Are the children- do you feel safer about them? Are their faces a little ruddier; are their legs a little sturdier? Do they laugh and play a lot louder in Friendship? Then I am content. "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)

9 " Thank goodness there were people who were happy with nothing, thought Julia, so that people like her (and everyone else she had ever met) could have more. "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)

10 " Patrick had a fervent desire to be left alone matched only by his fervent desire not to be left alone. "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)

11 " Is reality a consensual hallucination? And is a nervous breakdown in fact a refusal to consent? Go on, don't be shy, tell me what you think. "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)

12 " What state? A state of philosophical enquiry? I thought you would approve. "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)

13 " Mind you, what is there to do with money except spend it when you've got it or be bitter about it when haven't? "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)

14 " I hate this place,' she said. 'They're going to throw me out because they say I've got a bad attitude. But I only stay in bed because I'm so depressed. "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)

15 " Mary that that 'swift return' was going a bit far. She glanced nervously at the coffin, as if Eleanor might fling off the lid and hop out any moment, throwing open her arms to embrace the word, with the awkward theatricality of the photograph on the order service. "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)

16 " Do not take Vigilante if you are suffering from high blood pressure, low blood pressure, or normal blood pressure. Consult physician if you experience chest pains, swollen eyelids, elongated ears. . . "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)

17 " Oh Jesus, thought Patrick, let me out of here. He imagined himself disappearing through the floor with a shovel and some bunk-bed slats, the theme music of The Great Escape humming in the air. He was crawling under the crematorium through fragile tunnels, when he felt himself being dragged backwards by Annette's maddening voice. "

― Edward St. Aubyn , At Last (Patrick Melrose, #5)