“We really must make a compromise," thought Miss Mapp, meaning that everybody must come round to her way of thinking, "or our dear little cosy bridge evenings won't be possible.”
Source: The Male Impersonator
“Everything in here is true. Especially the bits I made up.”
Source: Raw Spirit
“Banksie, hi. What you up to?'
'Well, I'm going to be writing a book about whisky.'
'You're what?'
'I'm going to be writing a book about whisky. I've been, umm, you know, commissioned. To write a book about it. About whisky. Malt whisky, actually.'
'You're writing a book about whisky?'
'Yeah. It means I have to go all over Scotland, driving mostly, but taking other types of transport - ferries, planes, trains, that sort of thing - visiting distilleries and tasting malt whisky. With expenses, obviously.'
'You serious?'
'Course I'm serious!'
'Really?'
'Oh yeah.'
'... Do you need any help with this?”
Source: Raw Spirit
“While they rested, beholding where the beast mantichora lay in his blood, Juss spake and said, “It is to be said of thee, O Brandoch Daha, that thou today hast done both the worst and the best. The worst, when thou wast so stubborn set to fare upon this climb which hath come within a little of spilling both thee and me. The best, whenas thou didst smite off his tail. Was that by policy or by chance?”
“Why,” said he, “I was never so poor a man of my hands that I need turn braggart. ’Twas handiest to my sword, and it disliked me to see it wagging.”
Source: The worm Ouroboros
“Caroline O'Day appealed to us, although the breasts of Caroline O'Day were devalued, in Owen's view, by her Catholicism.”
Source: A Prayer For Owen Meany
“Bleeped awake at 3 a.m. from my first half-hour's shut-eye in three shifts to prescribe a sleeping pill for a patient, whose sleep is evidently much more important than mine. My powers are greater than I realized - I arrive on the ward to find the patient is asleep.”
Source: This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor
“Privately I've always considered myself to have some talent for measuring a woman's mood. But the expression on (her) face is forcing me to reconsider. Not blank, but the opposite. Regret coexisting with pride, with hints of resentment, joy, frustration, shame, resignation, and curiosity. When it comes to emotions, women know how to paint with the full set of oils, while men are busy doodling with crayons”
Source: God Hates Us All
“The population is getting fatter faster than a mobility scooter hurtling towards Greggs at closing time.”
Source: This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor
“Otro pelotazo le hizo añicos las palabras, y sólo pronunciaba sílabas sin conexión. Aun ahora no está curado por completo: dice “sugerencia” por sugestión: “entrenador” por preparador, “influenciar” por influir y “programatización”, que es lo grave. El pobre teme no servir ya más que para locutor de “radio”.”
Source: De portería a portería
“Otra vez aparecí con alarmada prisa en Valencia, en ansia de distanciarme de seres desconocidos que parecían tener la desaforada y perjudicial aspiración de matarme, lo que, dado el pacífico carácter de mis relaciones con la sociedad, me pareció una exageración que había que evitar a toda costa.”
Source: De portería a portería