Douglas Stuart > Quotes

“Mungo’s capacity for love frustrated her. His loving wasn’t selflessness; he simply could not help it. Mo-Maw needed so little and he produced so much. So that it all seemed a horrible waste. It was a harvest no one seeded, and it blossomed from a vine no one tended.”
― Douglas Stuart, Unge Mungo

“It was a nothing that felt like an everything.”
― Douglas Stuart, Un lugar para Mungo

“A father can tell. Gregor's a good lad. A bright, fresh-air mind. Always helps his mother around the house without being asked, but he's a wee bit ..." The man paused as though he couldn't find the correct word. "Artistic. T'chut. Do ye know what I mean by that?"

Mungo gave a small nod. He wasn't sure if what the man meant, and what he understood, were the same thing.

"Forgive me if I've read you wrong, David. But would I be right in thinking ye are a wee bit artistic yourself?" Calum didn't wait for an answer. "See, I know lots of men would be bothered by that. But I have no problem with ye if you are. I'm just saying ... Och, well, I dunno. I say the wrong thing sometimes.”
― Douglas Stuart, Un lugar para Mungo

“Mungo's capacity for love frustrated her. His loving wasn't selflessness, he simply couldn't help it. Mo-Maw needed so little and he produced too much, so that it all seemed a horrible waste. It was a harvest no one had seeded, and it blossomed from a vine no one had tended. It should have withered years ago, like hers had, like Hamish's had, yet Mungo had all this love to give and it lay about him like ripened fruit and nobody bothered to gather it up.”
― Douglas Stuart

“One weekend away doesnae make you a man. Ye're not too big to go over my knee."

Mungo stared right through her. First, he had not been man enough; now he was too much.”
― Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo

“There is no way Shuggie Bain can dance!
Shuggie tutted. He wrenched himself from her side and ran a few paces ahead. He nodded, all gallus, and spun, just the once, on his polished heels.”
― Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

“What did I do?" asked Mungo. 'What did I do?'. It was what he had been trained to say. Never 'what's wrong with you?' or 'are you okay?'. Only 'what did I do'?
(Young Mungo)”
― Douglas Stuart

“He smiled when he didn't want to. He would do anything just to make other people feel better.”
― Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo

“They had crossed this line a day or two before. They had wandered from timid tenderness to affection wrapped in insults. It was a lovely place for two boys to be: honest, exciting, immature.”
― Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo

“Mungo looked both up and down the hill, and then he kissed James quickly on the lips. It was like hot buttered toast when you were starving. It was that good.”
― Douglas Stuart

“He was Mo-Maw’s youngest son, but he was also her confidant, her
lady’s maid, and errand boy. He was her one flattering mirror, and her
teenage diary, her electric blanket, her doormat. He was her best pal, the
dog she hardly walked, and her greatest romance. He was her cheer on a
dreich morning, the only laughter in her audience.”
― Douglas Stuart

“James was bigger than him, a whole head taller., a whole year older. There was a dark road and James was on it. Mungo knew he should not follow, if he didn't step on to the road, he could still turn away. James looked at him, and as though he could read his mind, he laid his finger on Mungo's twitching cheek and said, "Don't be lit me Mungo. It's not late for you."

But it was too late. It had always been too late.”
― Douglas Stuart, Un lugar para Mungo

“Don't be lit me Mungo. It's not too late for you.
But it was already too late. It had always been too late. When they were younger, Mungo and Hamish had been playing in the bathroom. They had filled the scalloped sink and they were slamming Action Men together in an underwater battle. Hamish was resting his weight on the lip of the sink, and Mungo couldn't see, so he jumped up and did the same. There had been the tiniest fracture in the porcelain - Mo-Maw had dropped a glass ashtray into it one time - and now the weight of their play breached it and the water poured everywhere. Just before the sink split, Mungo put his hand over the crack and tried to hold back the water - it worked, and then it failed, and he was soaked and bloody from the chipped porcelain. He tried all afternoon, but there was no way to put the crack back together.”
― Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo

“She'd looked as happy as he could ever remember, and he was surprised how this hurt. It was all for the red-headed man. He had done what Shuggie had been unable to do.”
― Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

“Mungo watched as his siblings gathered up their belongings. He saw them with an unusual clarity. It was already over for them. It would never be over for him. He just had no one to tell.”
― Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo

“Waves of loveliness ebbed over him followed by waves of shame. They came like Jodie alternating the hot and cold taps and trying to balance a bath with him already in it. This time, though, he couldn't pull his legs to his chest and escape it, he would be burned or he would be chilled as it happened. There was no pulling way.
(Young Mungo)”
― Douglas Stuart

“As Mungo leaned over the water he focused on his reflection. He wondered what it was the men had recognized in him. Where was this signal he could not see, the semaphore he had never meant to send?...He wanted to find the signal, and he wanted to end its transmission.
(Young Mungo)”
― Douglas Stuart

“He hadn’t known that the sky could hold so many hues – or he hadn’t paid it any mind before. Did anyone in Glasgow look up?”
― Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo

“Mrs Campbell had once said Mungo's forgiveness was biblical, but Jodie didn't care much for the Bible, she thought it was stupid of him to be so easily exploited. She thought it was a little bit sad, a little bit weak. Her brother had all this love and forgiveness for an elfin wee woman who thought about herself first and last and in between. She was a terrible mother. Jodie didn't like to say that about another woman, but she was. She was terrible. Hamish knew it. Jodie knew it. She wondered when Mungo would too.”
― Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo

“He looked like a man made of graphite, like one of his own black-and-white drawings.”
― Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

“He had lied to Agnes as she had lied to him about stopping the drink. She would never be able to get sober, and he, sat in the cold with a lovely girl, knew he would never feel quite like a normal boy.”
― Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

“Jodie reached her hand out to push his hair away and he stepped away from her. He could look at Jodie, but he wouldn't let her touch him again. If Jodie, of all people, could not love him, all of him, perhaps he could not be loved.”
― Douglas Stuart, Un lugar para Mungo

“The boy was engrossed, his face in shadow, and he looked like he was playing with small toy horses that could have easily been wooden toys, military or Trojan. Shuggie knew what they really were, that they were the scented dolls, bright and cheerful and for little girls. They were the pretty ponies, and Leek had known. Leek had always known.”
― Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

“What was once built to be new and healthful now looked sick with a poverty of hope.”
― Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

“Her younger brother was a rare sort of handsome. His wasn't the usual blunt or rugged masculinity, and it wasn't the over-preened, over-musked, amateur-footballer-style that the boys in her year aspired to. Mungo had high cheekbones and a refined brow that Jodie with her plump cheeks and stub nose, would have killed for. There was a timidness to his gaze. His hazel eyes could bathe you in their glorious warmth, or he could dip them away from you and make you with he would look at you again. If you could coax it from him, then there was real reward in his cautious smile; to earn it made others feel instantly endeared towards him. His unruly mop of hair made women want to mother him.”
― Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo

“He felt something was wrong. Something inside him felt put together incorrectly. It was like they could all see it, but he was the only one who could not say what it was. It was just different, and so it was just wrong.”
― Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

“He rested his ear against the door and prayed for Eugene to stay, prayed that his mother would find strength to stay off the drink and be at peace. Then he prayed for God to make him normal for his birthday.”
― Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

“It was a funny thing to be a disappointment because you were honest and assumed others might be too. The games people played made his head hurt.”
― Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo

“Her brother was her mother's minor moon, her warmest sun, and at the exact same time, a tiny satellite that she had forgotten about. He would orbit her for an eternity, even as she, and then he, broke into bits.”
― Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo

“The day was drawing in the last of her colours, and as the softest violets and apricots bled away into the horizon, he was sad to have not arrived sooner. Mungo tilted his head back and walked in a circle. The sky above him was a darkening blue smeared with faint streaks of lemon. He hadn't known that the sky could hold so many hues - or he hadn't paid it any mind before. Did anyone in Glasgow look up?”
― Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo