David Nicholls Quotes
-
As soon as she'd met him at the arrivals gate on his return from Thailand, lithe and brown and shaven-headed, she knew that there was no chance of a relationship between them. Too much had happened to him, too little had happened to her.
→ -
He's wearing his official university sweatshirt again, which puzzles me a little. I mean I'd sort of understand it more if it said Yale or Harvard or something, because then it would be a fashion choice. But why advertise the fact that you're at a university to all the other people who are at the university with you?
→ -
I tell you what it is. It's...when I didn't see you, I thought about you every day, I mean every day in some way or another -" "Same here -" "- even if it was just 'I wish Dexter could see this' or 'where's Dexter now?' or 'Christ, that Dexter, what an idiot', you know what I mean, and seeing you today, well, I thought I'd got you back - my best friend. And now all this, the wedding, the baby - I'm so happy for you, Dex. But it feels like I've lost you again.
→ -
The true writer, the born writer, will scribble words on scraps of litter, the back of a bus tickets, on the wall of a cell.
→ -
As a novelist, I'm incredibly lucky to make a living, but that doesn't mean that I don't lie awake at four o'clock in the morning, worrying.
→ -
You're gorgeous, you old hag, and if I could give you just one gift ever for the rest of your life it would be this. Confidence. It would be the gift of confidence. Either that or a scented candle
→ -
Do you miss her?' 'Who? Emma? Of course. Every day. She was my best friend.
→ -
I really was a terrible actor. I did it for years in my twenties because it was like being at university again.
→ -
I think I became a writer because I used to write letters to my friends, and I used to love writing them. I loved the idea that you can put marks on a page and send it off, and two days later, someone laughs somewhere else in the world.
→ -
It would be inappropiate, undignified, at 38, to conduct friendships or love affairs with the ardour or intensity of a 22 year old. Falling in love like that? Writing poetry? Crying at pop songs? Dragging people into photobooths? Taking a whole day to make a compilation tape? Asking people if they wanted to share your bed, just for company? If you quoted Bob Dylan or TS Eliot or, god forbid, Brecht at someone these days they would smile politely and step quietly backwards, and who would blame them? Ridiculous, at 38, to expect a song or book or film to change your life.
→ -
Mortified at the speed with which intimacy evaporates.
→ -
…she was discovering once again that reading and writing were not the same — you couldn't just soak it up then squeeze it out again.
→ -
Find the thing you love, and do it with all your heart, to the absolute best of your ability, no matter what people say.
→ -
And then she frowned, and shook her head, then put her arms around him once more, pressing her face into his shoulder, making a noise that sounded almost like rage. 'What's up?' he asked. 'Nothing. Oh, nothing. Just...' She looked up at him. 'I thought I'd finally got rid of you.' 'I don't think you can.' he said
→ -
He could feel her laughter against his chest, and at that moment he thought that there was no better feeling than making Emma Morley laugh.
→ -
I'm not the consolation prize, Dex. I'm not something you resort to. I happen to think I'm worth more than that.
→ -
For the best part of my childhood I visited the local library three or four times a week, hunching in the stacks on a foam rubber stool and devouring children's fiction, classics, salacious thrillers, horror and sci-fi, books about cinema and origami and natural history, to the point where my parents encouraged me to read a little less.
→ -
I think reality is over-rated
→ -
This is where it all begins. Everything starts here, today.
→ -
These days grief seems like walking on a frozen river; most of the time he feels safe enough, but there is always that danger that he will plunge through. Now he hears the ice creak beneath him, and so intense and panicking is the sensation that he has to stand for a moment, press his hands to his face and catch his breath.
→ -
I usually write on a computer - unless I get stuck, at which point I switch to write by hand. I think that's common among writers if they get cornered on something.
→ -
You must do what you enjoy.
→ -
Sometimes I wish that I hadn't learned how to crochet," I say, and Alice laughs. Obviously she thinks I'm joking, which is maybe for the best.
→ -
I contemplate the idea that maybe I'm an alcoholic. I get this occassionally, the need to define myself as something-or-the-other, and at various times in my life have wondered if I'm a Goth, a homosexul, a Jew, a Catholic or a manic depressive, whether I am adopted, or have a hole in my heart, or possess the ability to move objects with the power of my mind, and have always, most regretfully, come to the conclusion that I'm none of the above. The fact is I'm actually not ANYTHING.
→ -
…and Emma felt another small portion of her soul fall away.
→ -
At university, I used to write silly little sketches and monologues, but never fiction.
→ -
Work hard at . . . something.
→ -
Cuddling was for great aunts and teddy bears. Cuddling gave him cramp.
→ -
The fact was I loved my wife to a degree that I found impossible to express, and so rarely did.
→ -
And it was at moments like this that she had to remind herself that she was in love with him, or had once been in love with him, a long time ago.
→
Related Authors
-
Romola Garai Actress -
Nick Hornby Novelist -
Simon Callow Actor -
Thomas Hardy Novelist -
Charles Dickens Writer -
Matthew Warchus Director -
Sam Shepard Playwright -
Karen Joy Fowler Author -
Jim Sturgess Actor -
Jeremy Irvine Film actor -
Jim Broadbent Film actor -
Sheridan Smith Actress -
Rafe Spall Actor -
David Mitchell Novelist -
David Morrissey Actor -
Lone Scherfig Film director -
Jojo Moyes Novelist -
Sarah Waters Novelist -
Nicholas Sparks Novelist -
Anne Hathaway Actress