394 Quotes by Lionel Shriver

In a country that doesn't discriminate between fame and infamy, the latter presents itself as plainly more achievable.

This pervasive craving to be recognized as special amounted to an abdication of power, an outsourcing of your core responsibilities. I spurned the fawning of strangers, but I did feel special to myself. I had found that "feeling special" was a private experience, and no one else's projected fascination could substitute for quiet absorption in your own life.

People seem to get used to anything, and it is a short step from adaptation to attachment.

He was already intuiting that attachment - if only to a squirt gun - made him vulnerable.

―La democracia es una broma.―Sí. Muy incisivo ―dijo Jackson, satisfecho―. Una buena tesis también. En teoría es posible que el cincuenta y uno por ciento de la población desplume todo lo que puede al otro cuarenta y nueve por ciento. Ese tipo de Venezuela, ¿cómo se llama? Howard Chávez, algo así. Así hace él las cosas. En serio, él sólo envía cheques a los marginados. Les das a los gorrones dinero ajeno y después te votan.

I didn't care about anything. And there's a freedom in apathy, a wild, dizzying liberation on which you can almost get drunk. You can do anything. Ask Kevin.

It's an apathy so absolute that it's like a hole you might fall in.

My own apathy is bone chilling.

He prizes ambiguity; he loves to keep you guessing.