David Nicholls, One Day
38 quotes
"This is me.’" He handed her the precious scrap of paper. ‘Call me or I’ll call you, but one of us will call, yes? What I mean is it’s not a competition. You don’t lose if you phone first."
"Happyish. Well, happyish isn't so bad.''It's the most we can hope for."
"He put one hand lightly on the back of her neck and simultaneously she placed one hand lightly on his hip, and they kissed in the street as all around them people hurried home in the summer light, and it was the sweetest kiss that either of them would ever know. This is where it all begins. Everything starts here, today. And then it was over."
"Sometimes, when it’s going badly, she wonders if what she believes to be a love of the written word is really just a fetish for stationery. The true writer, the born writer, will scribble words on scraps of litter, the back of a bus tickets, on the wall of a cell. Emma is lost on anything less than 120gsm."
"Okay, well I think the programme is like being screamed at for an hour by a drunk with a strobe-light, but like I said--"
"A moment passed, perhaps half a second when their faces said what they felt, and then Emma was smiling, laughing, her arms around his neck."
"If you're my friend I should be able to talk to you but I can't, and if I can't talk to you, well, what is the point of you? Of us?"
"Maybe we've grown out of each other."
"I'm just not prepared to be treated like this anymore.''Treated like what?'She sighed, and it was a moment before she spoke. 'Like you always want to be somewhere else, with someone else."
"No, friends were like clothes: fine while they lasted but eventually they wore thin or you grew out of them."
"Their friendship was like a wilted bunch of flowers that she insisted on topping up with water. Why not let it die instead? It was unrealistic to expect a friendship to last forever…"
"Dexter, I love you so much. So, so much, and I probably always will.' Her lips touched his cheek. 'I just don't like you anymore. I'm sorry."
"You start out wanting to change the world through language, and end up thinking it's enough to tell a few good jokes."
"Keep the change," he smiled. Was there ever a more empowering phrase than "Keep the change"?"
"Cuddling was for great aunts and teddy bears. Cuddling gave him cramp."
"And is that what love looks like -- all wet mouths and your skirt rucked up?""Sometimes it is."
"Maybe they're in love.""And is that what love looks like - all wet mouths and your skirt rucked up?""Sometines it is."
"I'm just not going to do it so that we can say that we've done it. And I'm not going to do it if the first thing you say afterwards is 'please don't tell anyone' or 'let's forget it ever happened'. If you have to keep something secret it's because you shouldn't be doing it in the first place!"
"All his words and actions would now be fit for his daughter’s ears and eyes. Life would be lived as if under [her] constant scrutiny. He would never do anything that might cause her pain or anxiety or embarrassment and there would be nothing, absolutely nothing in his life to be ashamed of anymore."
"Self-pitying, self-righteous, self-important, all the selfs except self-confident, the quality that she always needed the most."
"There seemed no reason why she shouldn't try writing something in between, but she was discovering once again that reading and writing were not the same - you couldn't just soak it up and then squeeze it out again."
"You can live your whole life not realising that what you're looking for is right in front of you."
"And there it is again, the look. There's no doubt about it, if Sylvie had a receipt, she would have taken him back by now; this one's gone wrong. It's not what I wanted."
"He hadn't been this nervous since the last disastrous night at the improv, and he firmly told himself to calm down as he blotted at the tablecloth, glancing upwards to see Emma wriggling out of her summer jacket, pushing her shoulders back and her chest forward in that way that women do without realising the ache they cause."
"He swatted at her with his book. "Shut up and read, will you?"He lay back down and closed his eyes. Emma glanced over to check that he was smiling, and smiled too."