Adrian Plass > Quotes

“Looking at Kathy's troubled face, I reflected on the fact that I never know what to say to people when they get into this sort of state. I have come to believe, however, that this 'not knowing' is a significant advance on thinking you know what to say. There was a time when I responded to other people's difficulties with a sort of bullying exasperation, probably because I secretly thought that no one could have problems as mountainous as mine. Why should I waste more energy than was absolutely necessary on the trivial little blips that interrupted their smooth-running lives? The tendency to react like that was still in me, but nowadays I tried to kick it out as soon as it appeared. I have to be honest and say that Kathy's earlier complaints about the pressures of motherhood had provoked a little 'What about me?' cry in some back chamber of my heart, but stronger than that response was the gritty knowledge that real friendship means accepting the whole package, not just the bits that appeal to you.”
― Adrian Plass, Stress Family Robinson

“Couldn't even smile when George Farmer said he wanted to hear a spontaneous burst of applause after the next chorus.”
― Adrian Plass, The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Aged 37 3/4

“What a disaster that was. I was utterly dismayed at the thought that I might take a wrong decision and perhaps miss out on marrying the one and only unique person in the cosmos that God had selected for me, who might be a mustachioed Christian goat-herd called Brawn Hilda living on the windswept hills of Estonia. If I messed up, not only would I be condemned to a ‘second choice’ marriage, but poor old Brawn Hilda would be consigned to a dull life watching goats swanning around (maybe that should be goating around) and reading Leviticus for slaughtering tips, her only joy the sight of her country occasionally winning the Eurovision Song Contest.”
― Adrian Plass, Seriously Funny: Life, Love & God...Musings Between Two Good Friends

“...creating a universe was one thing, saving a seat on the four-fifteen to Taunton was something else.”
― Adrian Plass, View from a Bouncy Castle

“In my dreams I have lived a promise that no waking day has ever kept.”
― Adrian Plass, Stress Family Robinson