Pat Donlin

“maybe she was just so used to getting away with everything, maybe she couldn’t believe she’d ever have to pay, flashing her devil-may-care grin over her shoulder as she fishtailed on her Big Wheel, leaving me behind in a spray of gravel, me always running, running to catch up”
― Beth Ann Fennelly, The Irish Goodbye: Micro-Memoirs

“Nobody phoned, nobody came and there weren’t any letters.” Parsons seemed proud of his empty life, as if it was evidence of respectability.”
― Ruth Rendell, From Doon With Death

“They are disagreeing, vehemently and enjoyably, about the politics of Malawi, where Gordon has recently been. Gordon advises the ministers of such places on how to manage their economies. ‘Rubbish, Claudia,’ he says. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’ve never been to the damn place.’ ‘Since when,’ says Claudia, ‘did I depend on personal experience for an informed opinion?’ And they both laugh.”
― Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger

“The profession, either navy or army, is its own justification. It has every thing in its favour; heroism, danger, bustle, fashion. Soldiers and sailors are always acceptable in society. Nobody can wonder that men are soldiers and sailors.”
― Jane Austen, Mansfield Park