394 Quotes by Lionel Shriver

Of course for professional traders on the stock exchange, money had always been imaginary - just as notional, just as easy come and easy go, as the points in a video game. Wage earners like Willing's mother thought money was real. Because the work was real, and the time was real, it seemed inconceivable that what the work and the time had converted into would be gossamer.

Complacency has a way of restoring itself of its own accord.

To a man and woman, all of her elderly patients had been surprised to be old – which Avery privately regarded as a serious failure to pay attention.

They were determined to find something mechanically wrong with him – because broken machines are easier to fix.

Of course for professional traders on the stock exchange, money had always been imaginary – just as notional, just as easy come and easy go, as the points in a video game. Wage earners like Willing’s mother thought money was real. Because the work was real, and the time was real, it seemed inconceivable that what the work and the time had converted into would be gossamer.

For that matter, thinking of one’s self as exceptional is probably more the rule than not.

How lucky we are, when we’re spared what we think we want!

You had bought us some other family’s dream house.

Everything works, doesn’t it? At least if you’re white and middle class. So it must often seem to young people that they’re not needed. In a sense, it’s as if there’s nothing more to do.