19 Quotes by Pip Williams

So you and Dr Murray could make the words mean whatever you want them to mean, and we'll all have to use them that way forever?

The past came towards me, and I closed the book.

Of the Scriptorium men, Mr. Sweatman was the last to return to work. He shook Gareth's hand and took mine to kiss it.'How proud and happy your father would have been,' he said, and I held his gaze, knowing the memory of Da was stronger when it was shared.[Esme Nicholl]

You are correct in your observation that words in common use that are not written down would necessarily be excluded. Your concern that some types of words, or words used by some types of people, will be lost to the future is really quite perceptive.

[Esme Nicholl] 'Morbs, Mabel? What does it mean?'[Mabel O'Shaughnessy] 'It's a sadness that comes and goes... I get the morbs, you get the morbs, even Miss Lizzie 'ere gets the morbs, though she'd never let on. A woman's lot, I reckon.''It must derive from morbid,' I said to myself....'I reckon it derives from grief,' said Mabel. 'From what we've lost and what we've never 'ad and never will. As I said, a woman's lot....

Praise dulls the intellect.[Beth Thompson, quoting Dr. James Murray]

It is context...that gives meaning.[Harry Nicholl]

It will find its way into the final volumes, I expect,' said Mr. [Fred] Sweetman when we discussed it. 'The poets will see to that. They have a way of adding nuance to the meaning of things.

LOSS'Sorry for your loss, they say. And I want to know what they mean, because it's not just my boys I've lost. I've lost my motherhood, my chance to be a grandmother. I've lost the easy conversation of neighbours and the comfort of family in my old age. Every day I wake to some new loss that I hadn't thought of before, and I know that soon it will be my mind.' Vivienne Blackman, 1915