“This world spins from the same unseen forces that twist our hearts.” — David Mitchell Unseen forces Copy Share Image
All revolutions are the sheerest fantasy until they happen; then they become historical inevitabilities. — David Mitchell Fantasy Copy Share Image
“Most yarnin's got a bit o' true, some yarnin's got some true, an' a few yarnin's got a lot o' true.” — David Mitchell Copy Share Image
“He sifts the radio waves, but it's all men singing like women and women singing like men...” — David Mitchell Female Copy Share Image
“A Titus Andronicus catalog of threats beat at the door. They haunt my nightmares still.” — David Mitchell Nightmares Copy Share Image
“Anonymous, faceless homicides, he decides, lack the thrill of human contact.” — David Mitchell Adventure Copy Share Image
“...if you bare your arse to a vengeful unicorn, the number of possible outcomes dwindles to one.” — David Mitchell Naivete Copy Share Image
“Funny, thinks Milton. Power, time, gravity, love. The forces that really kick ass are all invisible.” — David Mitchell Copy Share Image
Many children are natural fantasists, I think, perhaps because their imaginations have yet to be clobbered into submission by experience. — David Mitchell Copy Share Image
“Eavesdropping’s sort of thrilling ’cause you learn what people really think, but eavesdropping makes you miserable for exactly the same reason.” — David Mitchell Adventure Copy Share Image
“That’s writing, I suppose—dozens of decisions about what’s in, what’s out, what goes with what, what’s clever but not honest, what’s so… — David Mitchell Writing Copy Share Image
“Payday loans: “If you were the sort of person who was ever going to understand compound interest, you wouldn’t be in this… — David Mitchell Compound interest Copy Share Image
“No wonder it's all such a fucking mess. I divided up my possible futures, put them into separate accounts, and now they're… — David Mitchell Copy Share Image
I pass through many Me's in the course of my day, each one selfish with his time. The Lying-in-Bed me and the… — David Mitchell Copy Share Image
“ignorance of the Other engenders fear; fear engenders hatred; hatred engenders violence; violence engenders further violence until the only “rights,” the only… — David Mitchell Hatred Copy Share Image
If only,’ Shiroyama dreams, ‘human beings were not masks behind masks behind masks. If only this world was a clean board of… — David Mitchell Copy Share Image
“Human beings,’ I inhale my wine’s nutmeggy steam, ‘are walking bundles of cravings. Cravings for food, water, shelter, warmth; sex and companionship;… — David Mitchell Cravings Copy Share Image
“When watching the news, it’s so easy to forget what most of us are like: pleasant, polite, socially shy. We don’t want… — David Mitchell Life Copy Share Image
“Power is lost or won, never created or destroyed. Power is a visitor to, not a possession of, those it empowers. The… — David Mitchell Power Copy Share Image
“The clock’s pendulum catches the firelight, and in the rattle-breathed final moments of Jacob de Zoet, amber shadows in the far corner… — David Mitchell Beautiful Copy Share Image
“Men have imagined republics and principalities that never really existed at all. Yet the way men live is so far removed from… — David Mitchell Machiavelli Copy Share Image
Strip back the beliefs pasted on by governesses, schools, and states, you find indelible truths at one's core. Rome'll decline and fall… — David Mitchell Belief Copy Share Image
“Linnaeus's last lesson, of which he himself was unaware, was that professorships kill philosophers. Oh, I'm vain enough to want my burgeoning… — David Mitchell Linnaeus Copy Share Image
“Gulls wheel through spokes of sunlight over gracious roofs and dowdy thatch, snatching entrails at the marketplace and escaping over cloistered gardens,… — David Mitchell Bird Copy Share Image
“We din't speak much from then 'cos speakin' can be heard by spyers what you can't spy.” — David Mitchell Copy Share Image
“He lights another match to see if it's a time worth getting up for: 4:05. No. An inbetween hour.” — David Mitchell Copy Share Image
“One should be wary of touching one’s idols, for the gilt comes off on one’s fingertips.” — David Mitchell Copy Share Image
“Marinus blows out a mouthful of air. "Did close-range artillery knock any sense into you, or are we staying?” — David Mitchell Artillery Copy Share Image
The soul is a verb." He impales a lit candle on a spike. "Not a noun. — David Mitchell Candle Copy Share Image
This world, he thinks, contains just one masterpiece, and that is itself. — David Mitchell Masterpiece Copy Share Image
Power, time, gravity, love. The forces that really kick ass are all invisible. — David Mitchell Copy Share Image
I'm not from a milieu where high-register language or philosophical ideas were welcome. — David Mitchell Ideas Copy Share Image
“Who decides which defects are funny and which ones are tragic? Nobody laughs at blind people or makes iron lung jokes.” — David Mitchell Blind people Copy Share Image
“Politicians and sports coaches both need to be smart enough to master the game, but dumb enough to think it matters.” — David Mitchell Football Copy Share Image
“Because her laughter spurts through a blowhole in the top of her head and sprays all over the morning.” — David Mitchell Laughter Copy Share Image
“ The belly craves food , she thinks, The tongue craves water, The heart craves love, and The mind craves stories. ” — David Mitchell Love Copy Share Image
“Now and then goldfish splish and gleam, like new pennies dropped in water.” — David Mitchell Fish Copy Share Image
Peace, though beloved of our Lord, is a cardinal virtue only if your neighbors share your conscience. — David Mitchell Beloved Copy Share Image
Often I think boys don’t become men. Boys just get papier-mâchéd inside a man’s mask. Sometimes you can tell the boy is… — David Mitchell Boys Copy Share Image
“I could tell you a hundred things, thinks Jacob, and nothing at all.” — David Mitchell Copy Share Image
