Quotes From "Ghostwritten" By David Mitchell

There are different ways people make this place. Sweat, exercise and pain is one way. You can see them in the gyms, in the well-ordered swimming pools. You can see them jogging in the small, worn parks. Another way to make your place is TV. A bright, brash place, always well lit, full of fun and jokes that tell you when to laugh so you never miss them. World news carefully edited so that it’s not too disturbing, but disturbing enough to make you glad that you weren’t born in a foreign country. News with music to tell you who to hate, who to feel sorry for, and who laugh at. David Mitchell

Go on, my dear, " urges the snake. "Take one. Hear it? 'Pluck me, ' it's saying. That big, shiny red one. 'Pluck me, pluck me now and pluck me hard.' You know you want to.", clever girl, "expressly forbids us to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge."?"Eve folds her arms schoolgirlishly. "God expressly forbade it. Adam said." The snake grins through his fangs, admiring Eve's playacting. "God is a nice enough chap in His way. I daresay He means well. But between you and The Tree of Knowledge, He is terribly insecure."" Insecure? He made the entire bloody universe! He's omnipotent."" Exactly! Almost neurotic, isn't it? All this worshiping, morning, noon, and night. It's 'Oh Praise Him, Oh Praise Him, Oh Praise the Everlassssting Lord.' I don't call that omnipotent. I call it pathetic. Most independent authorities agree that God has never sufficiently credited the work of virtual particles in the creation of the universssse. He raises you and Adam on this diet of myths while all the really interesting information is locked up in these juicy apples. Seven days? Give me a break. David Mitchell

The silences after his last gasp were sung together by a blackbird. I lay there, my eyes unable to close. His were unable to open. I listed the places where I hurt, and how much. My loins felt ripped. Something inside had torn. There were seven places on my body where he had sunk his fangs into my skin and bitten. He'd dug his nails into my neck, and twisted my head to one side, and clawed my face. I hadn't made a noise. He had made all the noise for both of us. Had it hurt him? . David Mitchell

Sometimes John had recorded new compositions, or lines from his new poems. Sometimes he'd just record a busy night in The Green Man. Sometimes sheep, seals, skylarks, the wind turbine. If Liam were home there would be some Liam. The summer fair. The Fastnet Race. I would unfold my map of Clear Island. Those tapes prised the lid off homesickness and rattled out the contents, but always at the bottom was solace. David Mitchell

The double-crossed, might-have-been history of my country is not the study of what actually took place here: it's the study of historians' studies.. ..Memories are their own descendants masquerading as the ancestors of the present. David Mitchell

There's no future in stories... Stories are things of the past, things for museums. David Mitchell

I added 'writers' to my list of people not to trust. They make everything up. David Mitchell

If you’re in your life, chance. Viewed from the outside, like a book you’re reading, it’s fate all the way. David Mitchell

London is a language. I guess all places are. David Mitchell

Sometimes language can't even read the music of meaning. David Mitchell

How wonderful it must be, to be unable to remember things that once caused us distress. Yet we should embrace all our memories, whether joyful or painful. They're all we ever really own in this life. Isabel Wolff

But this isn't a ghost story: the ghost is in the background, where she has to be. If she was in the foreground she'd be a person. David Mitchell

Lunatics are writers whose works write them, Bat." "Not all lunatics are writers, Mrs. Rey-believe me." "But most writers are lunatics, Bat-believe me. The human world is made up of stories, not people. David Mitchell

When you write it, don't write it in the manner of a spooky story. Don't try to give an explanation. Just say that I don't know what to make of it, just write it like I tell it, so the reader can make up his own mind. David Mitchell

Taro taught me that people respect spirit, but even cowards don't respect cowards. David Mitchell

Right, my phone. When these things first appeared, they were so cool. Only when it was too late did people realize they are as cool as electronic tags on remand prisoners. David Mitchell

I wonder who had the first computer dream, where, and when? I wonder if computers ever dream of humans. David Mitchell

Is peace of mind the co-workability of your laws? David Mitchell

This, explained the angel, is hell. The people do not love each other. They only want to feed themselves. David Mitchell

Humans live in a pit of cheating, exploiting, hurting, incarcerating. Every time, the species wastes some part of what it could be. This waste is poisonous. David Mitchell

Your leaders must know powerful magic. Yes, said one of the women. The magic is called Marx, Stalin, Lenin and Class Dialectics. It didn't sound like very powerful magic to me. David Mitchell

Neither of us had anything to say, or rather we had everything to say, but after all those nights of not saying a word, we suddenly found we had not one dollar of time left between us. David Mitchell