Liz Lochhead > Quotes

“If aw his hums and haws were hams and haggises, the country wad be weel fed!”
― Liz Lochhead, Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off & Dracula

“THE MOTHER

is always two faced.
At best, she wishes you
into being. Yes it was she
cried at the seven drops of blood that fell,
staining the snow - she
who bargained crazily with Fate
for that long-waited child
as red as blood
as white as snow
and when you came true it was
she who clapped her hands merrily because
she was as happy as a Queen could be.
But she's always dying early,
so often it begins to look deliberate,
abandoning you,
leaving you to the terrible mercy
of the Worst Mother, the one who married
your father.
She doesn't like you, she
prefers all your sisters, she
loves her sons.
She's jealous of mirrors.
She wants your heart in a casket...”
― Liz Lochhead, The Grimm sisters

“And I am coming from the library with my arms full of books. I think of those prizes that were ours for the taking and wonder when the choices got made we don’t remember making.”
― Liz Lochhead, A Choosing: Selected Poem

“No one could say the stories were useless
for as the tongue clacked
five or forty fingers stitched
corn was grated from the husk
pathwork was pieced
or the darning was done...

(from 'The Storyteller Poems')”
― Liz Lochhead, Dreaming Frankenstein...