C.J. Tudor > Quotes

“What shapes us is not always our achievements but our omissions. Not lies; simply the truths we don’t tell.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“There are some things in life you can alter–your weight, your appearance, even your name–but there are others that wishing and trying and working hard can never make any difference to. Those things are the ones that shape us. Not the things we can change, but the ones we can't.”
― C.J. tudor, The Chalk Man

“We think we want answers. But what we really want are the right answers. Human nature. We ask questions that we hope will give us the truth we want to hear. The problem is, you can’t choose your truths. Truth has a habit of simply being the truth. The only real choice you have is whether to believe it or not.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“You may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but you can certainly judge a person by their books.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Burning Girls

“Being an adult is only an illusion. When it comes down to it I’m not sure any of us ever really grow up.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“The thing you have to understand is that being a good person isn’t about singing hymns, or praying to some mystical, god. It isn’t about wearing a cross or going to church every Sunday. Being a good person is about how you treat others. A good person doesn’t need a religion, because they are content within themselves that they are doing the right thing.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“Belief should be a conscious choice, not something you’re brainwashed into when you’re too young to understand or question it. Faith isn’t something you pass down like an heirloom. It’s not tangible or absolute. Not even for a priest. It’s something you have to keep working at, like marriage or children.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Burning Girls

“You know what someone once told me? Secrets are like arseholes. We all have them. It’s just that some are dirtier than others.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“People say time is a great healer. They're wrong. Time is simply a great eraser. It rolls on and on regardless, eroding our memories, chipping away at those great big boulders of misery until there's nothing left but sharp little fragments, still painful but small enough to bear.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“For who are we if not the sum of our experiences, the things that we gather and collect in life? Once you strip those away, we become just a mass of flesh, bone, and blood vessels.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“People say hate and bitterness will destroy you. They’re wrong. It’s hope. Hope will devour you from the inside like a parasite. It will leave you hanging like bait above a shark. But hope won’t kill you. It’s not that kind.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Other People

“He's dead.'
'Dead?'
Funny how people always repeat that word, even though they know they've heard it correctly. A kind of denial by delay.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“History itself is only ever a story, told by the ones who survive it.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“Principles are nice things. If you can afford them. I like to think I am a principled man, but then, most men do. The fact is, we all have a price, we all have buttons that can press to make us do things that are not entirely honorable. Principles do not pay the mortgage or clear our debts. A principled man is generally a man who has everything he wants or absolutely nothing to lose.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“Real friends are there no matter what. Real friends are people you love and hate in equal measure but who are as much a part of you as yourself.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“None of it was true but rumors are like germs. They spread and multiply almost in a breath and before you know it, everyone is contaminated.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“Or perhaps all adults feel like that at times. Like we’re just playing at being grown-up, but inside we’re still children, shuffling around in oversized clothes, wishing someone would tell us that monsters don’t exist.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Burning Girls

“Never assume," my dad once told me. "To assume makes an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“The past isn't real. It's just a story we tell ourselves, and sometimes we lie.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“They were chanting a lot of stuff about love but they seemed full of hate.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“We think we want answers. But what we really want are the right answers. Human nature. We ask questions that we hope will give us the truth we want to hear. The problem is, you can't choose your truths. Truth has a habit of simply being the truth. The only real choice you have is whether to believe it or not.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“Thin, I think, that fabric between realities. Maybe minds aren't lost. Maybe they just slip through and find a different place to wander.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“We romanticize the past with our period dramas and glossy film adaptations. A bit like we do with nature. Nature is violent, unpredictable and unforgiving. Eat or be eaten. That's nature. However much Attenborough or Coldplay you wrap it up in.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“However, even as a kid, I could sense the anger - the venom - of those protesters. Something about their eyes, the spittle that exploded from their mouths, the way they brandished their banners like weapons. They were chanting a lot of stuff about love but they seemed full of hate.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“Better to be a fool than an angel.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“Your world shrinks as you grow older. You become Gulliver in your very own Lilliput.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“The Church isn’t just for those who believe in God. It’s for those who don’t have anything to believe in. The lonely, lost and homeless. A place of refuge.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Burning Girls

“No one ever found any answers at the bottom of a bottle. Not the point, of course. The point of reaching the bottom of the bottle is generally to forget the questions.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“You might not be able to judge a book by it's cover, but you can certainly judge the person who owns the book.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“You’re fading, slipping from my memories. Because memories are only as strong as the people who hold onto them. And I’m tired. I don’t know if I can hold on for much longer.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Other People