“Could you be an old maid if you had worn the scarlet letter?” — Kate Atkinson Scarlet Copy Share Image
Most people muddled through events and only in retrospect realized their significance. — Kate Atkinson Events Copy Share Image
“trying to restore some kind of natural balance of humors in the world.” — Kate Atkinson Comedy Copy Share Image
“I know,” Ursula said, “it’s like the Emperor’s new clothes.” — Kate Atkinson Fashion Copy Share Image
(although anyone with half a brain must surely be mired in existential gloom all the time) — Kate Atkinson Brain Copy Share Image
“...how strange it was that people just kept on going, even when their world no longer existed.” — Kate Atkinson Copy Share Image
“A simple acceptance of what comes to us, regarding it as neither bad nor good. “Werde, der du bist, as he would… — Kate Atkinson Acceptance Copy Share Image
“That was how you lost people, a little carelessness and they just slipped through your fingers.” — Kate Atkinson Carelessness Copy Share Image
“she appeared in the doorway of his study and placidly announced she was leaving him. "It's you, not me," she said.” — Kate Atkinson Divorce-humor Copy Share Image
Ursula craved solitude but she hated loneliness, a conundrum that she couldn’t even begin to solve. — Kate Atkinson Conundrums Copy Share Image
“When she was little they had lived in an old farmhouse too, in the middle of nothing of but landscape.” — Kate Atkinson Country-living Copy Share Image
“They have no sense of humour whatsoever – even Bunty has a sense of humour compared with our hosts. They have united… — Kate Atkinson Comedy Copy Share Image
“There were doorways between this world and the next, she said, but only certain people could pass through them.” — Kate Atkinson Copy Share Image
Because I write fiction, I don't write autobiography, and to me they are very different things. The first-person narrative is a very… — Kate Atkinson Autobiography Copy Share Image
“He had made a vow, a private promise to the world in the long dark watches of the night, that if he… — Kate Atkinson Life Copy Share Image
“There were other war veterans in the neighborhood, visible thanks to their limps or missing limbs. All those unclaimed arms and legs… — Kate Atkinson Peace Copy Share Image
“He had been very keen on Esperanto, which had seemed an absurd eccentricity at the time but now Ursula thought it might… — Kate Atkinson Common language Copy Share Image
“We cannot turn away,” Miss Woolf told her, “we must get on with our job and we must bear witness.” What did… — Kate Atkinson Remember Copy Share Image
“Or was it, as everyone told her, and as she must believe, all in her head? And so what if it was… — Kate Atkinson Perception Copy Share Image
“Her heart swelled with the high holiness of it all. Imminence was all around. She was both warrior and shining spear. She… — Kate Atkinson Heart Swelled Copy Share Image
“There was always a second before the siren started when she was aware of a sound as yet unheard. It was like… — Kate Atkinson Siren Copy Share Image
“Because life is an adventure, of course.” “I would say it was more of an endurance race,” Sylvie said. “Or an obstacle… — Kate Atkinson Adventure Copy Share Image
“This Jackson bloke was the ruddy Scarlet Pimpernel, here, there and everywhere, always one step ahead of Barry. And everywhere he went,… — Kate Atkinson Jackson-brodie Copy Share Image
You must never believe everything they say about a person. Generally speaking, most of it will be lies, half-truths at best. — Kate Atkinson Believe Copy Share Image
“It was funny because she thought of herself as a good team player, although sometimes she suspected that no one else on… — Kate Atkinson Good team Copy Share Image
No point in thinking, you just have to get on with life. We only have one after all, we should try and… — Kate Atkinson Life Copy Share Image
Because I've a track record of talking about books I never write, in Australia they think I'm about to write a book… — Kate Atkinson About Copy Share Image
“I dreamt of going on the stage once," he said, looking crestfallen. "It's never too late," I said vaguely. A lie, of… — Kate Atkinson Dreams Copy Share Image
“What did science ever do for the world, apart from make better ways of killing people?” Sylvie said.” — Kate Atkinson Better way Copy Share Image
“Get down,' Bunty says grimly. 'Mummy's thinking.' (Although what Mummy's actually doing is wondering what it would be like if her entire… — Kate Atkinson Family Copy Share Image
“That was the problem with time travel, of course (apart from the impossibility) - one would always be a Cassandra, spreading doom… — Kate Atkinson Cassandra Copy Share Image
“Women seemed to him to be in possession of all kinds of undesirable properties, chiefly madness.” — Kate Atkinson Madness Copy Share Image
What if we had a chance to do it again and again, until we finally did get it right? Wouldn't that be… — Kate Atkinson Chance Copy Share Image
“Love at first sight, she wrote giddily to Millie. But of course such feelings weren't 'true' love (that was what she would… — Kate Atkinson Children Copy Share Image
Feminism is such an incredibly awkward word for us these days, isnt it? Not to be feminist would be bizarre, wouldnt it? — Kate Atkinson Awkward Copy Share Image
“Do you keep time in the same place that you save it? If so why is it always so difficult to find?… — Kate Atkinson Safe place Copy Share Image
“Long lazy days like these will never come again in your life. You think they will but they won't.' -Sylvie” — Kate Atkinson Days Copy Share Image
“I'm a shadow of my former self," she announces. Vinny was a shadow to begin with, now she's a shadow of a… — Kate Atkinson Identity Copy Share Image
My work is not my life. I started writing quite late, I didn't have that 'writing is everything, my art is all.'… — Kate Atkinson Able Copy Share Image
