Eliza Clark > Quotes

“She liked Harry Styles a few years ago, and now she likes that white-bread, absolute fucking baguette of a lad from Call Me by Your Name.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“Do I have to smash a glass over the head of every single man I come into contact with, just so I leave a fucking mark?”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“Was it my idea to have him hurt me, or did he just let me think it was?”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“You want to think you're not like other women, but you are, you know. You're still... that's still how the rest of the world, how men are going to see you. Like, I know you hate labels, but you like... You live in a woman's body. You're vulnerable. No matter what you think, you're vulnerable...”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“I don't know if you realise how you speak to people sometimes, the way you feed people table scraps. I know that's that what I get from you, table scraps, but because it's scraps from your table, it's better than a 3 course meal with someone else. And you've given me glimpses into your life, your real life, and I wonder if it's your fault. I wonder if you've got anything but scraps to give.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“There’s a soft part of your brain. A place where you’re still just a child. Once someone’s poked the soft spot, the dent doesn’t go away. Like sticking your fingers in wet concrete.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“Do you like it rough? I think so. I think I must. Men are rough, aren't they? Have I always had a taste for rough stuff, or did I acquire that? In the back of Lesley's car, on the floor of a friend's house, half-conscious with my underwear around my ankles? Was it my idea to have him hurt me, or did he just let me think it was?”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“I explain to him that nothing matters, and nothing lasts. Everyone forgets, and everything disappears. The things you do, the things you are; it’s all nothing. Would anyone miss you, if you went away? Would anyone look for you? Would anyone listen, or even care, if I hurt you? If I put my hands around your neck and crushed your windpipe and chopped you up, would anyone find you? And if it’s a no to any of these, did you even exist in the first place?”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“My mam always used to tell me that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. And Eddie from Tesco is a fly, but he's got a taste for vinegar. It's like vinegar is all he's ever had from people, and now he doesn't even know what honey tastes like.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“do I have to snap the wine bottle inside him to get him to stop sending me sad emails? Do I have to cut his nipple off for him to realise he should probably ring the police? Do I have to cave his head in with my camera, rather than hit him the once? Do I have to crash his car? Do I have to smash a glass over the head of every single man I come into contact with, just so I leave a fucking mark?”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“I remember finding him very attractive at the time; though any man who pays attention to you, at that age, can transform from frog to prince in the time it takes to tell you he likes your hair.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“There’s a Susan Sontag book called Regarding the Pain of Others, which Frank made me read — there’s a bit where Sontag talks about how when people see terrible things happen, they used to say it felt like a dream, but now they say it feels like a movie. Movies have supplanted dreams in the popular consciousness, and have become our benchmark for the unreal, and the almost real. Today has been a movie, playing on an old, warped videotape.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“Get off your high horse bitch youre literally reading school shooter fanfic.”
― Eliza Clark, Penance

“She asked me if I hated men, or if I liked men and hated that I liked them so much.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“that fucking crying-laughing face that old people use when they’re being racist on social media.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“I’m in an aquarium – if you tap on the glass the fish swim away.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“have a photo of each leg, each arm, and his torso: all these boy parts, which I can arrange on my living room floor like a jigsaw.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“Do you know what happened to her already? Did you catch it in the papers? Are you local? Did you know her? Did you see it on the internet? Did some website the trawls local news for the worst details of true crimes bring her to your attention? Did you see the article about her, buried in the chum box of an already disreputable website? Did you see the red-headed stock image model juxtaposed against an edited charred corpse, captioned, "You won't believe what they did to her?" Did you listen to a podcast? Did the hosts make jokes? Do you have a dark sense of humour? Did that make it okay? Or were they sensitive about it? Did they coo in the right places? Did they give you a content warning? Did you skip ahead? Did you see pictures? Did you look for them?”
― Eliza Clark, Penance

“In the land of the borderline autistic, the man who can make eye contact is king.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“Geordie girls are up there with Irish girls and Scottish girls; the black women of white women, you know?”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“and I refuse to ask for sex. They ask me. They beg. That’s how it works.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“Most men dress like shit, you see. I’ve had them turn up to shoots in cargo shorts and ask what’s wrong with what they’re wearing and I’m literally, like, lmao.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“I actually fucking hate children.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“And kids, they're very instinctual, they're very primitive, in a lot of ways. And they can smell difference on you.”
― Eliza Clark, Penance

“I look at the photos again, the ones I didn’t delete. I look at his purple face, his bloody chin and nipple, his swollen cheeks. I wonder what the fuck I have to do for people to recognise me as a threat, you know? It’s like... am I even doing this shit? Have I even fucking done anything?”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“I think you’re happy giving people your scraps. I think that’s easy for you, and I don’t blame you, because I hate being like this, and I wish I was more like you.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“I know that’s what I get from you, table scraps, but because it’s scraps from your table, it’s better than a 3 course meal with someone else. And you’ve given me glimpses into your life, your real life, and I wonder if it’s your fault. I wonder if you’ve got anything but scraps to give.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“I just watched. I watched his shoulders shake, and his eyes swell, and blood dribble down his chin. He looked up at me, like I was supposed to do something. The transition from being hurt to hurting was natural. Even though I didn’t really know why he’d started crying – it felt like something I did. It felt like being a great big black widow and realising that all the male spiders were tiny and weak and covered in soft vulnerable bits, whereas I had this hard, shiny thorax and great big teeth.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“because he wants to look like one of those big, masculine men, whose personality revolves around craft beer and red meat consumption.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts

“They’re playing The Smiths, on purpose, in this post-racist-Morrissey economy. I mean, there’s an argument to be made that he’s been racist for fucking ages, and shit for even longer, and I don’t know why we’re all just deciding now that it’s bad.”
― Eliza Clark, Boy Parts