56 Quotes by Deborah Smith

Flattery is a lie covered in a bed of flowery words.

But there's also a strong emotional core to counterbalance the experimentalism, with some incredibly moving passages around the narrator's relationship with her (also female) German teacher. It's beautiful.

The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful. PROVERBS 12:22

Life doesn't take itself seriously for long. Joy leaves an imprint even in the hardest sorrow.

A chorus of tough southern belles whispered, You need a loyal husband around here. Loyal to you, loyal to your family, loyal to your land. I added, Good in bed, smart, and romantic. Politically, socially, and religiously compatible. And he had to want children.

I did my BA in English lit, and hated the restriction - I'd always read more in translation than not; coming from a working-class background, what I knew of as British literature - the writers who made big prize lists and/or were stocked in WH Smith, Doncaster's only bookshop until I was 17 - seemed incredibly, alienatingly middle-class. Then in 2009, just after the financial crash, I graduated with no more specific skill than 'can analyse a bit of poetry'.

The hardest memories are the pieces of what might have been.

I taught myself the first year course while I was on the dole, then moved to London to do an MA at SOAS, which led straight into a PhD.

Happy people look young. You’re really afraid of getting older, aren’t you? You should only be afraid of getting less happy.