Emma Donoghue > Quotes

“Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time...I don't know how persons with jobs do the jobs and all the living as well...I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter all over the world, the roads and houses and playgrounds and stores, so there's only a little smear of time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“Everybody's damaged by something.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“People don't always want to be with people. It gets tiring.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“If I was made of cake I'd eat myself before somebody else could.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“Stories are a different kind of true.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“When I was a little kid I thought like a little kid, but now I'm five I know everything”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“I've seen the world and I'm tired now.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“Goodbye, Room." I wave up at Skylight. "Say goodbye," I tell Ma. "Goodbye, Room."
Ma says it but on mute.
I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened. Then we go out the door.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“I think buddy is man talk for sweetie.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“Sometimes when persons say definitely it sounds actually less true.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“People move around so much in the world, things get lost.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“Everyone's got a different story.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“[E]verywhere I'm looking at kids, adults mostly don't seem to like them, not even the parents do. They call the kids gorgeous and so cute, they make the kids do the thing all over again so they can take a photo, but they don't want to actually play with them, they'd rather drink coffee talking to other adults. Sometimes there's a small kid crying and the Ma of it doesn't even hear.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“I think about Old Nick carrying me into the truck, I'm dizzy like I'm going to
fall down.

"Scared is what you're feeling," says Ma, "but brave is what you're doing."

"Huh?"

"Scaredybrave."

"Scave."

Word sandwiches always make her laugh but I wasn't being funny.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“The world is always changing brightness and hotness and soundness, I never know how it's going to be the next minute.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“Books are the air I breathe, so I don't notice the seasons.”
― Emma Donoghue

“This is a bad story.”
“Sorry. I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have told you.”
“No, you should,” I say.
“But—”
“I don’t want there to be bad stories and me not know them.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“It’s called mind over matter. If we don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” When a bit of me hurts, I always mind.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“When I tell her what I’m thinking and she tells me what she’s thinking, our each ideas jumping into the other’s head, like coulouring blue crayon on top of yellow that makes green.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“I remember manners, that's when people are scared to make other persons mad.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“The sound of the pages turning was the sound of magic. The dry liquid feel of paper under fingertips was what magic felt like.”
― Emma Donoghue, Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins

“A lot of the world seems to repeat itself”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time. Even Grandma often says that, but she and Steppa don't have jobs, so I don't know how persons with jobs do the jobs and all the living as well. In Room me and Ma had time for everything. I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter over all the world, the roads and houses and playgrounds and stores, so there's only a little smear of time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit.

Also everywhere I'm looking at kids, adults mostly don't seem to like them, not even the parents do. They call the kids gorgeous and so cute, they make the kids do the thing all over again so they can take a photo, but they don't want to actually play with them, they'd rather drink coffee talking to other adults. Sometimes there's a small kid crying and the Ma of it doesn't even hear.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“And as the years flowed by, some villagers told travelers of a beast and a beauty who lived in the castle and could be seen walking on the battlements, and others told of two beauties, and others, of two beasts.”
― Emma Donoghue, Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins

“You know who you belong to, Jack?”
“Yeah.”
“Yourself.”
He’s wrong, actually, I belong to Ma.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“It’s called mind over matter. If we don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
― Emma Donoghue

“Outside has everything. Whenever I think of a thing now like skis or fireworks or islands or elevators or yo-yos, I have to remember they're real, they're actually happening in Outside all together. It makes my head tired. And people too, firefighters teachers burglars babies saints soccer players and all sorts, they're all really in Outside. I'm not there, though, me and Ma, we're the only ones not there. Are we still real?”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“There's not a thing wrong with you, you're right the whole way through.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room