“ She should have done science, not spent all her time with her head in novels. Novels gave you a completely false idea about life, they told lies and they implied there were endings when in reality the… Kate Atkinson
“ She had had affairs over the years ... but she had never been pregnant, never been a mother or a wife and it was only when she realized that it was too late, that it could never be, that she understoo… Kate Atkinson
“ She didn’t feel she had the fortitude for all those Tudors, they were so relentlessly busy – all that bedding and beheading. Kate Atkinson
“ She didnt see the point of alcohol, or drugs. People had little enough control over their lives without losing more. Kate Atkinson
“ Running wasn’t pointless, of course. Sometimes you did it to try to outrun your thoughts, sometimes you did it to chase them and bring them down. Sometimes you did it so that you didn’t think at all. Kate Atkinson
“ Of course, I don’t believe in God,’ Dr Kellet said. ‘But I believe in heaven. One has to, Kate Atkinson
“ No woman was ever truly safe. It didn’t matter if you were as tough as Sigourney Weaver in Alien Resurrection or Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2 because wherever you went there were men. Kate Atkinson
“ No point in thinking, she said briskly, you just have to get on with life. (She really was turning into Miss Woolf.) We only have one after all, we should try and do our best. We can never get it righ… Kate Atkinson
“ Look at the Germans, the most cultured and well mannered of people, and yet… Auschwitz, Treblinka, Bergen-Belsen. Given the same set of circumstances it could just as well have been the English, Kate Atkinson
“ It had been a while since Juliet had shared her bed with anyone. There had been a few, but she thought of them as mistakes rather than lovers, Kate Atkinson
“ In the end, it is my belief, words are the only things that can construct a world that makes sense. Kate Atkinson
“ If he hadn’t been the father of her children, Viola might have admired Dominic for the way he was so easily able to absolve himself of all obligation simply by asserting his right to self-fulfilment. Kate Atkinson
“ I was distracted suddenly from these pleasant thoughts by noticing that, like the eyes in certain portraits, Heather’s nipples seemed to have the uncanny ability to follow you around the room. This is… Kate Atkinson
“ I suppose a better sister would have set about weaving him a shirt from nettles and throwing it over his furred-over body so that he could be released from his enchantment and resume his human form. I… Kate Atkinson
“ I need to talk to you. People always say that, Hartley said grimly, but usually what they need is not to talk. Kate Atkinson
“ I loved him so much. Love him so much. I don’t know why I use the past tense. It’s not as if love dies with the beloved. Kate Atkinson
“ How wonderfully, joyously, untrammeled he had been then in his happiness. She thought it was fixed for ever, she didn't realize that childhood happiness dissolves away. If she had realized that Archie… Kate Atkinson
