Thomas Wymark > Quotes

“talked about my worry for the kids. If there was mental illness, would it affect them? Was it already in their genes? He rang his work while we were in the cafe and told them he felt ill and wouldn’t be back in until the morning. So now both of us were shocked. ‘I’m not sure how long”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“Failure to do anything would indeed be failure.”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“We could act in childish ways, we could revisit childhood places. But we never got back the childhood itself.”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“It made me realise how precious time was. But also how cruel and relentless it was too. I wondered why we gave ourselves time. Why we gave ourselves the means to measure it. Hours; minutes; seconds. Days; months; years. Why had we imposed those things on ourselves? They imprisoned us. Reminded us every moment that our lives were unstoppable. We couldn’t pause time. As each measurement passed, our lives decayed. We grew another year older, and another, and another.”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“person”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“If I didn’t mark off the years anymore, did away with birthdays and anniversaries, perhaps I could pause time. I wouldn’t age in the conventional sense. I would just be living my life. My one life.”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“There was something so different about childhood. Something wonderful and magical that just went from me as I got older. Why couldn’t I hold onto it?”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“it hit the surface I had immediately felt the first ripples, but I knew that slowly the pebble was sinking. Deeper and deeper. It would soon hit the bottom where it would lay, irretrievable and unchangeable, forever. It would become part of me. After”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“But I knew which fish I was looking for,”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“If I could just find out about my history, that would be the only way I would know for sure what my future might hold. Look back to reveal the future.”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“Much easier for him to talk on the phone than it was face to face.”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“should have checked it. I had been so wrapped up in myself since the attack.”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“Draining away then filling up again. Twisting and turning within me, becoming more and more tangled. I”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“My thoughts were spinning away from me so fast I wasn’t sure I could catch any of them.”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“I wondered why we gave ourselves time. Why we gave ourselves the means to measure it. Hours; minutes; seconds. Days; months; years. Why had we imposed those things on ourselves? They imprisoned us. Reminded us every moment that our lives were unstoppable. We couldn’t pause time. As each measurement passed, our lives decayed. We grew another year older, and another, and another. I”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“pure clarity in my mind”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“There was nothing to fear here, except inaction. Failure to do anything would indeed be failure.”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“wasn’t joking. But I couldn’t see how being unconscious for any amount of time constituted”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“world had just got too much for her. And I could understand that. Losing my children was the most awful thing. It’s something you never really get over, you know?’ I”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“How hard he tried for my mother.”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“Their parents were always going to be parents no matter how old the children got.”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“But if only I could go back, just for a little while. There was something so different about childhood. Something wonderful and magical that just went from me as I got older. Why couldn’t I hold onto it? Why had I allowed the world to take it from me?”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“But knowing that I was loved by my family and friends, although wonderful, wasn’t enough to pull me through this. Because I was fighting something from within I felt I needed something from within to bring to the battle. But there didn’t seem to be anything in me that was constant at the moment.”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“Boiling anger burns. Sticks to people like hot melted sugar. Scars and blisters.”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“I wanted to tell him that wasn’t what I’d meant. It wasn’t the feeling of pain I didn’t like, although that was bad enough, it was all the other feelings. All the not me feelings of aggression and anger. I was scared of those feelings. Of what they might mean. And what if they didn’t pass? But they would. I pushed the fear down inside me. Forced it down with my mind and all the strength I had. But that was when the madness started.”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“Chris,”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“It was as though it too was troubled and couldn’t get things quite right.”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“I wondered why Colin had had to buy a new rug. Had he murdered a client on the old one? Got rid of it because it was soaked in blood? Would I be his next victim?”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“But if only I could go back, just for a little while. There was something so different about childhood. Something wonderful and magical that just went from me as I got older. Why couldn’t I hold onto it? Why had I allowed the world to take it from me? Suddenly I hated the world, real life. Hated the way it took our childhood away from us. I hated that we had to become something other than children, that we had to give up our childness — that was the price we had to pay for becoming an adult. And once we’d paid the price, there wasn’t ever any going back. Not really. We could act in childish ways, we could revisit childhood places. But we never got back the childhood itself. My”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance

“drifted up from downstairs. He had obviously heard the smash too. His voice was muffled and I couldn’t work out what he was saying. I wondered if he’d bother coming back up again, or just head off to work. The school minibus would be arriving any minute, and he always liked to have left before then. I stood up and filled the sink with cold”
― Thomas Wymark, Inheritance