Lionel Shriver quotes - page 2

Giving anyone anything takes courage, since so many presents backfire. A gift conspicuously at odds with your tastes serves only to betray that the benefactor has no earthly clue who you are. (Lionel Shriver)
Change is like that: you are no longer where you were; you are not yet where you will get; you are nowhere exactly. View quote
Lionel Shriver
Though surely to avoid attachments for fear of loss is to avoid life. View quote
Lionel Shriver
The discovery that heartbreak is indeed heartbreaking consoles us about our humanity. View quote
Lionel Shriver
I thought at the time that I couldn't be horrified anymore, or wounded. I suppose that's a common conceit, that you've already been so damaged that damage itself, in its totality, makes you safe. View quote
Lionel Shriver
I was suffering from the delusion that it's the thought that counts. View quote
Lionel Shriver
... some people coddle their own afflictions the way others spoil small pedigreed dogs with cans of pate. View quote
Lionel Shriver
Secrets bind and separate in strict accordance with who's in them . View quote
Lionel Shriver
The Web, the great time-killer that had replaced conspicuously passive television with its seductive illusion of productivity. View quote
Lionel Shriver
So many stories are determined before they start. View quote
Lionel Shriver
It's queer how the thing what attracted you to someone is the same as what you come to despise about them. (Lionel Shriver)
Teachers were both blamed for everything that went wrong with kids and turned to for their every salvation. This dual role of scapegoat and savior was downright messianic but even Jesus was probably paid better. View quote
Lionel Shriver
Reading time is precious. Don't waste it. Reading bad books, or books that are wrong for a certain time in your life, can dangerously turn you off the activity altogether. View quote
Lionel Shriver
For the living, death is thievery. View quote
Lionel Shriver
Size is relative. If everyone is fat, no-one is fat. View quote
Lionel Shriver
It is never persuasive to argue that you are not the kind of person who does what you are actually doing. View quote
Lionel Shriver