25 Quotes by Louise Doughty

Muscle has memory: the body knows things the mind will not admit.

I think I have become a better writer since having children. It improves creativity, particularly because once you have children it makes you realise the story isn’t about you.

Writing gets easier once you know your allies and banish your enemies.

How many times in a life does a person get to feel an instant attraction for someone one has just met, the eyes locking, the sudden and overwhelming conviction that this is someone he or she is meant to know?

There is the mundane, then there is the unthinkable – between the two, a chasm into which our imaginations tumble.

He is proud that his job includes an element of protecting the British public from explosive devices, even though the British public probably thinks he’s the one most likely to be planting them.

She talks about men in the same amiable, unsurprised way that people talk about the weather – men are a kind of constant. a background note. They are useful objects for meaningless chatter when there is nothing else more important to talk about.

There’s a certain sort of a man whose every charm lies in his predictability.

And here’s the thing- when we have someone to say that- we feel annoyed with them. We grumble back. We have no idea how much we would miss having someone who has a bit of a go at us if they weren’t there- irritation is a form of love and love the seedbed in which it flourishes. If we didn’t care, we wouldn’t be irritated.