158 Quotes by Lily King

The stale cerebral self-conscious wit that bubbled like a frothy mold in every corner of Cambridge

Time is mercurial when you’re with children. A whole morning making pancakes and playing freeze tag goes by in a minute, whereas waiting for Jasper to tie his shoes or catch up on his bike is endless.

You don't realize how language actually interferes with communication until you don't have it, how it gets in the way like an overdominant sense. You have to pay much more attention to everything else when you can't understand the words. Once comprehension comes, so much else falls away. You then rely on their words, and words aren't always the most reliable thing.

He smelled of cigarettes and whiskey, the smell of Cambridge and youth.

He didn't like her strong, nor did he like her weak.

I don't write because I think I have something to say. I write because if I don't, everything feels even worse.

What’s the point of all this? Of all what? she asked. Of all this life.

You don't struggle with these questions?""No. But I've always thought my opinion was the right one. It's a small flaw I have.""An American flaw.

I asked her if she believed you could ever truly understand another culture. I told her the longer I stayed, the more asinine the attempt seemed, and that what I’d become more interested in is how we believed we could be objective in any way at all, we who each came in with our own personal definitions of kindness, strength, masculinity, femininity, God, civilisation, right and wrong.