Catherine O'Flynn > Quotes

“He was glad some of the pain was fading, had already faded so much since the first year. But it seemed more to be a trade off: with the pain went details and memories. People had said, ‘Time heals,’ but he realized time didn’t heal, time just eroded and confused, and he didn’t think that was the same thing at all.”
― Catherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost

“I don’t know – I suppose if you’re very unhappy at home, anywhere is better than there.”
― Catherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost

“She found the evenings long and empty, and the nights worse. She dreaded the weekends.”
― Catherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost

“She realized that was one of the things she liked about Green Oaks – nobody knew her. She wasn’t the quiet girl from class. She wasn’t the girl with no mom or dad.”
― Catherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost

“He had no trust in his own judgement any more, but there was no one else to rely on.”
― Catherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost

“Our absence is what remains of us.”
― Catherine O'Flynn, The News Where You Are

“I hate it here. I hate the way everyone looks at you. I hate the way everyone looks.”
― Catherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost

“She imagined people picking up the newspapers she dropped through their doors, reading about a world they never visited. For the first time it occurred to her that her classmates had been right. Except it wasn’t just one ghost, but many, one in every flat. Floating through the walls, communicating only through the strange words and symbols they left in the lift.”
― Catherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost

“Lisa: It just seems a bit of a waste.
Ed: Waste of what?
Lisa: Waste of time… of life.
Ed: That’s the point, isn’t it? To waste time until you die. You have to waste the time.”
― Catherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost

“It had been hard for months. Sleep would curl slowly around him while he was reading a book, sleep would trick him that he was awake, sleep would play the best movies.”
― Catherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost

“It frightened her to witness these mass ebbs and flows, to work at the cutting face of all that suggestion and manipulation.”
― Catherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost

“I think sometimes you lose people and you barely know it at the time. It starts as a small crack. That's all it is. It takes years, a lifetime, before you notice what went out through the crack. How much you lost.”
― Catherine O'Flynn, Mr Lynch's Holiday

“The longer she looked down the more scared she became of the growing urge to throw herself off.”
― Catherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost

“Dermot studied the backs of his hands. "I always loved her." He placed them flat on his knees. "But I've been less lonely since she's gone.”
― Catherine O'Flynn, Mr Lynch's Holiday

“Crime was out there. Undetected, unseen.”
― Catherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost

“Anyone who asked for chocolate limes was a killer, according to Adrian, due to his abhorrence of the sweet and his belief that no law-abiding person could like such an unnatural combination. "They've stepped outside the norms of society, Kate. Their moral compass has gone crazy. Anything goes." In addition, Adrian referred similarly to anyone who bought plain chocolate as "One with dark appetites."
Kate tried to base her suspicions on more concrete evidence, but even she couldn't help feeling dubious of anyone who bought prawn cocktail crisps. They both agreed, though, that Kit Kat buyers were forces for good in society.”
― Catherine O'Flynn