“Precocious was not the same as smart, much less the same as wise, and the perfect opposite of informed - since the… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“But I was beginning to intuit that full-blown maturity was not so very different from childhood. Both states in their extreme were… — Lionel Shriver Children Copy Share Image
“I so mixed and matched the planet that you sometimes worried I had no commitments to anything or anywhere, though you were… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
Children live in the same world we do. To kid ourselves that we can shelter them from it isn't just naive it's… — Lionel Shriver Child Copy Share Image
Overly vigorous investigations of ominously ill-defined 'bullying' can themselves constitute a form of bullying. — Lionel Shriver Bullying Copy Share Image
“And one of our consuming diversions as we age is to recite, not only to others but to ourselves, our own story.” — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
When Mexico enjoys an economic boom while the U.S. is in dire fiscal straights, it seemed perfectly credible that Mexico would not… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“He looks uncomfortable, and in this respect the garb is apt. Kevin is uncomfortable; the tiny clothing replicates the same constriction that… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“If you take that away from me, and every other opportunity to not quite toe the line,” Willing said, “then however many… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“Having buck teeth in junior high,” she rounded up unsteadily, “must be ideal preparation for getting old. For pretty people, aging is… — Lionel Shriver Aging Copy Share Image
Besides, I'd heard too many Karen Carpenter tales at Gladstone PTA meetings, and they often took the form of boasts. The prestigious… — Lionel Shriver Anorexia Copy Share Image
“I think that's the biggest favor you can grant anyone, don't you? Permission to be dull. I know Henry will sometimes say… — Lionel Shriver Love Copy Share Image
“But after I’d survived for so long on the scraps from my own emotional table, you spoiled me with a daily banquet… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“I have theorized that you can locate most people on a spectrum of the crudest sort and that it may be their… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
I first foreswore motherhood when I was about eight years old. ... [Children] were annoying. We were loud and sneaky and broke… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
In the particular dwells the tawdry. In the conceptual dwells the grand, the transcendent, the everlasting. Earthly countries and single malignant boys… — Lionel Shriver Boys Copy Share Image
“Accordingly, the one respect in which I depart from my younger self is that I now regard those people who have little… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“For that matter, all this, is there a God? Corlis -- I don't care!" "Huh," I considered. "I guess I don't either".… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“Thus even tragedy can be accompanied by a trace of relief. The discovery that heartbreak is indeed heartbreaking consoles us about our… — Lionel Shriver Heartbreaking Copy Share Image
“This sounds idiotic, but every time I encounter a picture of myself I am shocked to have been seen. I do not,… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
Reading time is precious. Don't waste it. Reading bad books, or books that are wrong for a certain time in your life,… — Lionel Shriver Books Copy Share Image
“Everything works, doesn't it? At least if you're white and middle class. So it must often seem to young people that they're… — Lionel Shriver Middle class Copy Share Image
“In the very instant of his birth, I associated Kevin with my own limitations—with not only suffering, but defeat. Eva” — Lionel Shriver Failure Copy Share Image
“It's not that I have no shame. Rather, I'm exhausted with shame, slippery all over with its sticky albumen taint. It is… — Lionel Shriver Shame Copy Share Image
Worse, the deadly accuracy of filial faultfinding is facilitated by access, by trust, by willing disclosure, and so constitutes a double betrayal. — Lionel Shriver Access Copy Share Image
I guess I understand a public intellectual to be somebody who moves public discourse forward: someone who either says something new or… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
I seem to remember even from when I was very young that when you loved someone you also hated them for making… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
February is for curmudgeons, whinge-bags, and misanthropes. You can't begrudge us one month of the year or blame us for being even… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
The fact that my clothing has been visually available to other people I do not find upsetting. The body is another matter.… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“So when I said I'd miss him, I meant I would miss what we had not experienced, and I don't know what… — Lionel Shriver Nostalgia Copy Share Image
“One of the things I learned with Charles," said Gray carefully, "was that finding someone like you does not necessarily mean that… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“I don't understand why doctors don't advise everybody to lay on twenty extra pounds while they've got the chance. I might not… — Lionel Shriver Obesity Copy Share Image
I owe thanks to a thoughtful, sophisticated readership hungry for challenging subject matter, for honest portrayals of parenthood, and for fiction whose… — Lionel Shriver Gratitude Copy Share Image
“I wonder if I wouldn't have been more moved if my own mother had taken me in her arms and said, 'I… — Lionel Shriver Business Copy Share Image
Some of the best scenes in drama take almost no time - helping to illustrate that life-changing events in real life often… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
When my novels are packaged as exclusively for women, I'm not only cut off from a vital portion of my audience but… — Lionel Shriver Audience Copy Share Image
“Like most people who did not answer a particular calling from an early age, you placed work beside yourself; any occupation would… — Lionel Shriver Career Copy Share Image
[Children] would have messed up my apartment. In the main, they are ungrateful. They would have siphoned too much time away from… — Lionel Shriver Copy Share Image
“[f]or most people, construction is tight, concentrated, bunchy, whereas vandalism offers release; you have to be quite an artist to give positive… — Lionel Shriver Art Copy Share Image
I am bowled over by the massive number of remarkable people who face down the fact that no, they are not going… — Lionel Shriver Art Copy Share Image
![“I first foreswore motherhood when I was about eight years old. ... [Children] were annoying. We were loud and sneaky and broke things. As an eight-year-old, maybe I was simply mortified by the prospect of being saddled with myself.” quote by Lionel Shriver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9ba/lionel-shriver-744_annoying_i-first-foreswore-motherhood-when-i-was_350277.jpg)
![“[Children] would have messed up my apartment. In the main, they are ungrateful. They would have siphoned too much time away from the writing of my precious books.” quote by Lionel Shriver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b19/lionel-shriver-744_apartment_children-would-have-messed-up-my-apartme_832236.jpg)
![“[f]or most people, construction is tight, concentrated, bunchy, whereas vandalism offers release; you have to be quite an artist to give positive expression to abandon.” quote by Lionel Shriver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7e4/lionel-shriver-744_art_f-or-most-people-construction-is-tight-c_1679635.jpg)
