22 Quotes & Sayings By Marlon James

Marlon James was born in Durban, South Africa, in 1975. He is the author of two novels, The Book of Night Women and A Brief History of Seven Killings. He has also published the work of fiction under the name Chris Ancrenaz. A former journalist, he has worked as an editor for various publications including the Times Literary Supplement and Granta Magazine Read more

His debut novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book in 2013. His second novel, The Book of Night Women, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2015.

Miss Betsy is looking at me. Some jealousy sure, but...
1
Miss Betsy is looking at me. Some jealousy sure, but every woman have that in them Marlon James
2
That’s the problem with peace. Peace make you careless. Marlon James
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I have a theory that while a man might not always get the wife he wants or needs, he always gets the wife he deserves. Marlon James
4
He said he had evidence that the Company was giving the opposition party money, which was just preposterous considering what bad form it would have been, trusting anybody in the Third World with money. Marlon James
5
If you going rape me, rape me already and leave me in whichever ditch you leave woman. Just stop bore me with your r’asscloth mouth Marlon James
6
Bad feeling is a country no woman want to visit. So they take good feeling any which way it come. Sometime that good feeling come by taking on a different kind of bad feeling. Marlon James
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My mother sings One day at a time sweet Jesus, and even Daddy likes to say that, one day at a time, as if it's some strategy for living. And yet the quickest way to not live at all is to take life one day at a time. Marlon James
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Because every man who fight monster become a monster too, and there be at least one woman in Kingston who think me is the killer of all things name hope. Marlon James
9
I think that’s what Toni Morrison and Alice Walker understand, the secret language of women. That it’s not a secret at all; men just don’t know how to listen. Marlon James
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I see seven people in one room and one pregnant and people fucking anyway because people so poor that they can’t even afford shame and I wait Marlon James
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Is true, you do feel better about things the further you run from it Marlon James
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Hate people like that, people you have to protect while they keep hurting you. Marlon James
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Hate and love be closer cousin than like and dislike. Marlon James
14
Or just claim it come from Leviticus since nobody ever read Leviticus. This is how you know. Nobody who get to the end of Leviticus can still take that book seriously. Even in a book full of it, that book is mad as shit. Don't lie with man as with woman, sure I can run with that reasoning. But don't eat crab? Not even with the nice, soft, sweet roast yam? And why kill a man for that? And trust me, the last thing any man who rape my daughter going to get to do is marry her. How, when I slice him up piece by piece, keeping him alive for all of it and have him watch me feed him foot to stray dog?. Marlon James
15
Or just claim it come from Leviticus since nobody ever read Leviticus. This is how you know. Nobody who get to the end of Leviticus can still take that book seriously. Even in a book full of it, that book is mad as shit. Don't lie with man as with woman, sure I can run with that reasoning. But don't eat crab? Not even with the nice, soft, sweet roast yam? And why kill a man for that? And trust me, the last thing any man who rape my daughter going get to do is marry her. How, when I slice him up piece by piece, keeping him alive for all of it and have him watch me feed him foot to stray dog?. Marlon James
16
Then I wondered if everybody has that person that haunts them, the one that got away. Marlon James
17
People think blood red, but blood don't got no colour. Not when blood wash the floor she lying on as she scream for that son of a bitch to come, the lone baby of 1785. Not when the baby wash in crimson and squealing like it just depart heaven to come to hell, another place of red. Not when the midwife know that the mother shed too much blood, and she who don't reach fourteen birthday yet speak curse 'pon the chile and the papa, and then she drop down dead like old horse. Not when blood spurt from the skin, on spring from the axe, the cat-o'-nine, the whip, the cane and the blackjack and every day in slave life is a day that colour red. It soon come to pass when red no different from white or blue or black or nothing. Two black legs spread wide and mother mouth screaming. A black baby wiggling in blood on the floor with skin darker than midnight but the greenest eyes anybody ever done seen. I goin' call her Lilith. You can call her what they call her. . Marlon James
18
Write about only three things: what you love, what you hate, and what you’re deeply conflicted about. Marlon James
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Three year in prison and a dick is just another thing to put up your ass. Marlon James
20
I find the violence in PG13 movies unbearable. This kid will never run home, never have another birthday. His death is slow, nightmarish. And you have to explore the consequences - the people who live on with this death. Marlon James
21
We shouldn't romanticize rejection. There's nothing romantic about rejection. It's horrible. Marlon James