“Brigid thought how much she wanted to love her mother simply and virtuously, because she was afraid otherwise her children would grow up feeling varieties of ambivalence toward her. They would learn from her poor example, experience the same confusion… — Joanna Kavenna Copy Share Image
“Virginia Woolf said, speaking from the perspective of the writer, that there’s no such thing, objectively, as a good or a bad novel, there’s just the novel you wanted to write. From the perspective of the reader, equally, there’s no such thing (objectively again) as a good or a bad novel – just the novel that moves you, that seems… — Joanna Kavenna Copy Share
“You won't get extra marks for being teacher's pet. You won't go to the top of the class. There is no class. There is no teacher. Or if there is then you have to understand that he or she doesn't actually like you. You are not being marked out of ten for how neatly you sharpen your pencil and how… — Joanna Kavenna Copy Share
“Worst of all, Patrick kept praising her; he said he didn't know how she managed it all. He was trying to encourage her, though it made her feel alone, too, that her experience was untranslatable, obscure to him. He did not perceive that she was half-mad with fatigue, and yet she rose each day and knew she must play her… — Joanna Kavenna Copy Share
“Brigid thought how much she wanted to love her mother simply and virtuously, because she was afraid otherwise her children would grow up feeling… — Joanna Kavenna Copy Share Image
“The following morning she realised they hated her. That hurt her feelings; she always preferred her hatred to be unreciprocated.” — Joanna Kavenna Copy Share Image
