Writers who take on polarising issues are apt to step on a few toes. — Lionel Shriver Issues Copy Share Image
I was born after the heavy spade work of female emancipation was done. — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“For Celia, her whole surround was animate, and each tapioca lump had a dense, nauseating little soul.” — Lionel Shriver Heart Copy Share Image
“...I long ago gave up defending humanity. It's beyond me on most days to defend myself.” — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
Only a country that feels invulnerable can afford political turmoil as entertainment. — Lionel Shriver Country Copy Share Image
Expectations are dangerous when they are both too high and unformed. — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“Yet in my experience, when left to their own devices people will get up to one of two things: nothing much, and… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“You loved to savor the present tense and were more conscious than anyone I have ever met that its every constituent is… — Lionel Shriver Present tense Copy Share Image
Built like an oak tree, against which I could pitch my pillow and read; mornings, I could curl into the crook of… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“I am confessedly and unashamedly almost fifty years old and never lie about my age because I want credit for every damned… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“Kevin folded his arms and looked satisfied; I had gone back to playing Mother. “I knew exactly what I was doing.” He… — Lionel Shriver Parenting Copy Share Image
Hungry for both fantasy and inspiration, readers crave protagonists who, after overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles, triumph at the end of the day. — Lionel Shriver Books Copy Share Image
I might defend the reviewing trade, but a handful of haughty hired hands no longer having the last word on books is… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“Oh, you knew exactly what I meant. Not that happiness is dull. Only that it doesn't tell well. And one of our… — Lionel Shriver Happiness Copy Share Image
“I suspect that children want their parents to be busy; they don't want to have to fill your schedule with their paltry… — Lionel Shriver Child Copy Share Image
“Food was a responsibility, a ward she was determined to go by, ... She'd force herself through to the last forkful even… — Lionel Shriver Food Copy Share Image
The absence of doll babies in my toy chest didn't seriously influence my later decision not to become a mother; rather, I… — Lionel Shriver Alive Copy Share Image
“Maybe it was different for you and Valerie, since you didn't like each other much. But many, perhaps most siblings share a… — Lionel Shriver Abuse of power Copy Share Image
“Over the years I observed Kevin watching decapitations, disembowelments, dismemberments, flayings, impalements, deoculations, and crucifixions, and I never saw him flinch. Because… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
It's always the mother's fault, ain't it?" she said softly, collecting her coat. "That boy turn out bad cause his mama a… — Lionel Shriver After school Copy Share Image
“At only ten a.m., Edgar found himself already eyeing the Doritos on the counter. One thing he hadn't anticipated about the 'home… — Lionel Shriver Home office Copy Share Image
During the protracted tooth-and-nail tussle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primaries, I was one of those fierce… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“Outside, she thought that there ought to be a word for it: the air temperature that was perfectly neither hot nor cold.… — Lionel Shriver Happiness Copy Share Image
“Okay, it's like this. You wake up, you watch TV, and you get in the car and you listen to the radio.… — Lionel Shriver Books Copy Share Image
“Tragedy seems to bring out all varieties of unexpected qualities in people. It was as if some folks got dunked in plastic,… — Lionel Shriver Agony Copy Share Image
“It was really rather wretched that you couldn’t will yourself to fall in love, for the very effort can keep falling at… — Lionel Shriver Fall in love Copy Share Image
“He didn't like to be seen needing it - as if hunger were a sign of weakness.” — Lionel Shriver Hunger Copy Share Image
“I've found that people's generalizations are largely illuminating about themselves.” — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
It's far less important to me to be liked these days than to be understood. — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
As any traveller knows, heading elsewhere is one thing, getting back quite another. — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
People seem to get used to anything, and it is a short step from adaptation to attachment. — Lionel Shriver Adaptation Copy Share Image
“What is cool changes; that there is such a thing as cool is immutable.” — Lionel Shriver Change Copy Share Image
“It's queer how the thing what attracted you to someone is the same as what you come to despise about them” — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
Notoriety is cheap. It's just easier to get noticed by doing something bad. — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
