"She’s happier than Nicola. That’s probably true. Alcoholics can stop drinking but what is there for the children of alcoholics? Is it always too late? Probably. She doesn’t know."
- Roddy Doyle
"Schools don't really allow failure and yet it's part of any endeavour, not just writing."
"She'd tried her hand at most things, but drew the line at honesty."
"Gloria screamed, but nothing came out. She could feel the scream in her throat, but it was clinging there, too scared to climb out of her mouth.Raymond might have screamed, too--he wasn't sure. His fa..."
"We parked our bikes on verges so they could graze."
"Sometimes, when you were thinking about something, trying to understand it, it opened up in your head without you expecting it to, like it was a soft spongy light unfolding, and you understood, it mad..."
"It was a sign of growing up, when the dark made no more difference to you than the day."
"I jumped on Sinbad's bottle. Nothing happened. I didn't do it again. Sometimes when nothing happened it was really getting ready to happen"
"Mary,' said her mother. 'We don't like sarcasm ' 'You mightn't like it,' said Mary. 'But I love it."
"If you were going to be best friends with anyone - Kevin - you had to hate a lot of other people, the two of you, together. It made you better friends."