Posts filed under “quotations”.
Mrs Eckdorf in O’Neil’s Hotel by William Trevor
Reads like this:
He had bought a small plot of ground a few miles from where they lived and he had just erected on it two glass-houses in which he proposed to cultivate tomatoes for profit. He had come back one evening and asked her if she’d ever noticed tomatoes in the shops. ‘A full chip [...]
Disturbing the Peace by Richard Yates
The second chapter opens with a Kafkaesque scene:
He woke up soaked with sweat, breathing stale and fetid air. A naked light bulb shone in his eyes and he found he was in a steel-framed bunk slung by chains from the wall, like a bunk in a troopship or a jail.
“. . . Everybody out,” a [...]
A Voice From The Book Trade
Over at The View From Here Magazine, Helen Miles talks about her experience of the book trade:
I was quite unprepared for the bizarre practices that persist in the selling of a book. Apparently, I must set a price for our books (that must end with 99p, obviously) and then offer a whacking discount to the [...]
Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller
First published in 2003, Heller’s novel opens like this:
1st March 1998
The other night at dinner, Sheba talked about the first time that she and the Connolly boy kissed. I had heard most of it before, of course, there being few aspects of the Connolly business that Sheba has not described to me several times over. [...]
Remembering Howard Zinn
Historian and political activist Howard Zinn died of a heart attack on Wednesday in Santa Monica, California. He was 87 years old.
“What does it take to bring a turnaround in social consciousness – from being a racist to being in favor of racial equality, from being in favor of Bush’s tax program to being against [...]
