42 Quotes by Colin Cotterill

He put his hand on his forehead and scoured the French department of his memory for a word. He knew it was in there. He’d put it in almost fifty years before and hadn’t had cause to remove it. But for the life of him he couldn’t find it.

Their version of rock-paper-scissors was elephant – fist, mouse – palm, and ant – little finger. The elephant crushed the mouse, the mouse squashed the ant, and the ant crawled up the elephant’s trunk and paralyzed his brain.

Watching Siri and Dtui ‘run’ to the administration block would have saddened even the most benevolent of athletic coaches.

I don’t know. On my last junket I was caught in the middle of a massacre. The one before that I was tortured and left for dead. Joy and recreation seem to have escaped me somehow.

You’d then drive your vehicle to a tree, beneath which the examiner sat. He or she would ask you to park. If you managed to do so without knocking over the tree or hitting the examiner, you had a license.

Concentrate on the small things and do them well.

Don’t tell me you’ve offended that one too.” Daeng shook her head. “Have we offended that one?” Siri asked. “Don’t recall,” said Civilai. “Wait. Isn’t he the one whose limousine we filled up with ducks?” “No. That was the Vice-Minister of Agriculture.

Chom. Don’t you have an urge to see justice done?” “It’s not nearly as strong as my urge to reach forty with a complete set of limbs.

There was a Lao proverb that called teachers the engineers of the soul.