“I bask in their heatedness as before a woodstove. My own apathy is bone chilling.” — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
It is never persuasive to argue that you are not the kind of person who does what you are actually doing. — Lionel Shriver Arguing Copy Share Image
Beauty is aspirational - an ideal that mortals approach but seldom attain. — Lionel Shriver Approach Copy Share Image
...some people coddle their own afflictions the way others spoil small pedigreed dogs with cans of pate. — Lionel Shriver Affliction Copy Share Image
Most women work not from yearning for fulfilment but yearning to pay the mortgage. — Lionel Shriver Feminism Copy Share Image
Over my lifetime, heavy usage has woefully eroded profanity's power. — Lionel Shriver Heavy Copy Share Image
But indifference would ultimately commend itself as a devastating weapon. — Lionel Shriver Indifference Copy Share Image
I have no end of failings as a mother, but I have always followed the rules. — Lionel Shriver Ends Copy Share Image
Everything people do that doesn’t work has to be somebody else’s fault. Next time you know, geezers’ll be suing the government for… — Lionel Shriver Court Copy Share Image
I think Britain is a little better at bringing intellectuals into discourse than America, where I'm from. Though I would say, perhaps,… — Lionel Shriver America Copy Share Image
The daughter of an ordained minister, I had been forced to go to church since I was a toddler. I hated church… — Lionel Shriver Believe Copy Share Image
“Dr. Rhinestein did not test for malice, for spiteful indifference, or for congenital meanness. If they could, I wonder how many fish… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
In a country that doesn't discriminate between fame and infamy, the latter presents itself as plainly more achievable. — Lionel Shriver Country Copy Share Image
“there is something implicitly uninteresting about the look of a person who will tell you whatever you want to know.” — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
Authors are free to ignore their editors' advice. I often avail myself of this veto power - sometimes out of a pigheadedness… — Lionel Shriver Advice Copy Share Image
“I see now what they mean by "holding your head high," and I am sometimes surprised by how much interior transformation a… — Lionel Shriver Holding Your Head High Copy Share Image
By stereotyping my work's audience as self-involved and prissy, women-only packaging also insults my readers, who could all testify that trussing up… — Lionel Shriver Audience Copy Share Image
For women, marriages foreclosed often resulted in an accumulation of booty; for men, these failed projects of implausible optimism were more likely… — Lionel Shriver Accumulation Copy Share Image
“Still, I may have been glad to scratch the dry surface of our day-to-day peaceableness the way Violetta had clawed the sere… — Lionel Shriver Itch Copy Share Image
“And Lawrence was afraid of the main thing. He had a tendency to talk feverishly all around the main thing, as if… — Lionel Shriver Mind Copy Share Image
“A successful lie cannot be brought into this world and capriciously abandoned; like any committed relationship,it must be maintained, and with far… — Lionel Shriver Committed relationship Copy Share Image
“High rents had priced out the very service sector whose presence at ready hand once helped to justify urban living. For all… — Lionel Shriver Life Copy Share Image
“I kept scrabbling around in myself for this new indescribable emotion, like stirring a crowded silverware drawer for the potato peeler, but… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“So sturdy and solid, so wide, so thick, none of that delicate wristy business of my imaginings. Built like an oak tree,… — Lionel Shriver Business Copy Share Image
“Franklin, I was absolutely terrified of having a child. Before I got pregnant, my visions of child rearing- reading stories about cabooses… — Lionel Shriver Children Copy Share Image
“Pregnancy had seemed a reasonable excuse for letting her metal-smithing tools languish, but that accounted for only eighteen months of the last… — Lionel Shriver Artists Copy Share Image
“It was a short session of the simple being-ness that he had long coveted for The Afterlife. What Glynis had called "doing… — Lionel Shriver Companionship Copy Share Image
“I hazarded to your mother that tragedy seems to bring out all varieties of unexpected qualities in people. I said it was… — Lionel Shriver Disaster Copy Share Image
“My story is about all I got to my name right now, and that's why I feel robbed. But a story's a… — Lionel Shriver Right now Copy Share Image
Now, bitterly, with one sweep of the front door, the compassion was spent. To the degree that Lawrence's face was familiar, it… — Lionel Shriver Bangs Copy Share Image
“Couples stray,” said Edgar. “Part of the breaking-in process.” “Not breaking in, breaking.” Nicola differed sharply. “You can glue people together again.… — Lionel Shriver Adults Copy Share Image
“I did feel a concentrated dislike for those boys, who couldn't submit to the odd faithless girlfriend, needling classmate, or dose of… — Lionel Shriver Dislike Copy Share Image
