Jennifer Johnston > Quotes

“There are lots of people who rewrite their past and, what’s more, believe it themselves. Now that is odd.”
― Jennifer Johnston, Two Moons: A poignant, witty Irish novel of mothers, daughters - and betrayal

“Because I am an officer and a gentleman they have given me my notebooks, pen, ink and paper. So I write and wait. I am committed to no cause, I love no living person. The fact that I have no future except what you can count in hours doesn't seem to disturb me unduly. After all, the future whether here or there is equally unknown. So for the waiting days I have only the past to play about with. I can juggle with a series of possibly inaccurate memories, my own interpretation, for what is worth, of events. There is no place for speculation or hope, or even dreams. Strangely enough I think I like it like that.”
― Jennifer Johnston, How Many Miles to Babylon?

“There was a full moon.
Two, thought Grace. One hovering in the sky above, the other flickering in the sea below. How lucky she was, to be suspended between two moons.”
― Jennifer Johnston, Two Moons

“The clever performing dogs pick up the whips and teach a whole new range of tricks to the rest and the whole performance starts again. C'est la bloody vie. Humorous really.”
― Jennifer Johnston, How Many Miles to Babylon?

“The real world. Perhaps it was all the same. Perhaps everywhere you went people were lost, searching with desperation for something they would never find. Mutilating themselves and each other in their desperation. There was no safety.”
― Jennifer Johnston, Shadows on Our Skin

“I hope you never experience the humiliation of living with someone who is completely indifferent to you. Humiliation.”
― Jennifer Johnston, How Many Miles to Babylon?

“Real friendship admits recognition of the ugly as well as the beautiful. I remember the moments that snatched me from the passive solitude of my normal life, warned me of the pleasure and the fear of living”
― Jennifer Johnston, How Many Miles to Babylon?

“Have they any more freedom down there than we have up here?’ ‘You misunderstand …’ ‘Is there a job for every man? And a home for everyone? Have all the children got shoes on their feet? Are there women down there scrubbing floors to keep the home together because stupid, useless old men are sitting round gassing about freedom?”
― Jennifer Johnston, Shadows on Our Skin

“My house will only be a shell for my body. I don't want anyone to breathe my air with me, to disturb my dust.”
― Jennifer Johnston, How Many Miles to Babylon?