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Bernard MacLaverty

70 quotes

“Gerry had once said to her in the middle of an argument that he didn't believe in souls but if, just perchance, they did exist, hers would be like a razor. She had been made that way by the Catholic Church, he said. Inflexible, narrow, capable of doing terrible damage by her adherence to rules and systems. But she totally objected. She told him that if she was a good person at all, it had come from her religion. If she had any sense of justice and fairness, any concept of equality, then it had come from the Church.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When she emptied the kettle she always filled it for the benefit of the next person.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's nobody can fix this but yourself. You are the only one who can make the changes.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Four pounds?" Still the woman hesitated. "Any less and it'd be a favour," he said. Already he was out of pocket. He stood up to end the bargaining.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Short story, "Words the happy say", p.11 [Page numbers per the 1989 Penguin paperback]
“A summer insect flew into the metal dome of the Anglepoise and knocked around like a tiny knuckle.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On the wall above the desk was an ikon he had bought in Thessaloníki - he afterwards discovered that he had paid too much for it. It had been hanging for some months before he noticed, his attention focused by a moment of rare idleness, that Christ had a woodworm hole in the pupil of his left eye. It was inconspicuous by its position, and rather than detracting from the impact, he felt the ikon was enhanced by the authenticity of this small defect.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sit down, son, don't loom.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It concentrates the mind wonderfully knowing that this [life] is all we can expect.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I come from the kind of house where if my father saw me with a book in my hand he'd say, "Can you not find something better to do?”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Neil offered his arm as she lowered herself from the step to the ground. "What a polite young man." "That's my mother's fault.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is disconcerting to find that an acquaintance considers you his best friend, his soul mate, but I could do nothing about it.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But listen to this," Kathleen laughed and wheezed. "We had been talking about books. He tells me he reads a lot - as a matter of fact he's book mad - and when I came in with the tea I said 'Do you like Earl Grey?' and he says, 'I don't know. What did he write?' Isn't that marvellous?" Mary smiled and nodded while Kathleen giggled uncontrollably.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He continued talking. "When you find out about real education you can never leave it alone. I don't mean A-levels and things like that - you are just proving something to yourself with them - but books, ideas, feelings. Everything to do with up here." He tapped his temple. "And here." He tapped the middle of his chest.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“INTERVIEWER: (After an awkward silence) And how do you see the future? PROFUNDO: I wait for it to come and then look at it (laughs).”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You can't choose your children.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's not much you can do in this world without people getting to know.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He no longer believed in any of it. Faith was a bit like luck. Spiritual luck. By the end of his novitiate it had begun to drain away. He struggled and prayed to retain it but each morning that he awoke he realized that he had less of it. He had sprung a leak and he didn't know where to mend it. Nevertheless he took his final vows. He did not know what else he could do. To back out at that stage would have killed his father. He was convinced of it. Once he had discussed the problem with his Novice Master but he had averted his face and told him to pray. After this his prayers carried an extra phrase - if You exist. God, if You exist, help me. But this compromise eventually gave way to not praying at all. He felt totally trapped. [...] It was funny in a way that it was his love for his father and a desire not to hurt him that kept him for so long in the Brothers. But when his father died everything changed.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He put his feet up on the mantelpiece and leaned back in the chair. He thought about how things happened to him but he brought nothing about. What he needed was self-discipline. His mother had ruled her own life with a hand of iron. She did everything she should do, getting up at seven and walking a mile to mass every day no matter what the weather; if she wanted one thing badly she did without others; if what she wanted was spiritual she denied her body. In Lent she took black tea and weighed her morsels of food on scales and for six weeks wouldn't let a sweet cross her lips although she loved them. She sent money abroad to her working sisters while at night she sat with a wooden mushroom darning her stockings with a criss-cross brown thread. She worked so her family would not want and Cal had never wanted while she was alive. He got a sense of a new life, a new start now that he had officially moved into the cottage. He would discipline himself. He felt a surge of his own power to direct his life into whatever path he wanted. There were six cigarettes left in his packet and he lit one and smoked it with a decadent pleasure, knowing it to be his last. The rest he threw into the fire.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You sit down to your desk and listen to what's inside your head. Things appear suddenly and unexpectedly. I don't mean it's like inspiration or anything like that but, put it this way, you are there with a 3B pencil in your hand should you hear anything good. If you are in a notion of working, the idea takes root and won't let you go. It puts out twigs and branches. These twigs get leaves and thorns and maybe, if you are lucky, blossoms. And fruit. [...] The worst thing that can happen at a time like this is an interruption. When the interruption is over it's very hard to get the same momentum going again.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He succeeded in persuading her back to look at The Jewish Bride. There was a crowd gathered around it. It was huge, big as a hoarding, a great slash of browns and yellows and reds. Two figures, a man and a woman on the edge of intimacy, or perhaps just after, about to coorie in to one another. Hands. Hands everywhere. A painting about touch. Stella joined the crowd and wormed her way to the front. Gerry watched her bite her lip as she gazed. She became aware of Gerry watching her. He excused himself and threaded his way to her side. "Well?" "There's a great tenderness in him," she said. "You can see he cherishes her." "Look at that big hand of his," Gerry said. "And the sleeve. Like a big croissant. The way he's put the paint on." "And the faces," she said. "But she's not so sure. Shy, yes. Sure, no. What sumptuous clothes." She pointed out the groom's hand around the woman's shoulder and his other hand resting on her breast. The bride's touch of the groom's hand.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source