01UndatedLife took longer to reassemble than it did to blow apart, but that didn't mean it wouldn't be lovely, providing that one remembered to go for country walks, and to tune the wireless to music.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
02UndatedOne could always imagine that one's life, though smoldering in parts, might be undamaged in the west.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
03UndatedOne could always imagine that one's life, though smoldering parts, might be undamaged in the west." "We also serve who live with grace." "If there had been more time, or less, it all would have been easier. If its an hour one can say what one likes. If it's a year, one can be what one is like. A day is exactly the wrong lenght of time to be oneself in, don't you think?" "In the end I suppose we lay flowers on a grave because we cannot lay ourselves on it." "The dead were filthy, half buried, sometimes barely distinguishable from the mud or the rubble they lay in. One didn't understand, until one had seen a great many bodies, the unconscious effort that one must be making every minute simply to keep one's hands and face and clothes clean. The world's surfaces were so filthy that the living touched them only with the tips of their fingers and the soles of their shoes. How grubby it was to die, to give up making that effort." Life took longer to reassemble than it did to blow apart, but that didn't mean it wouldn't be lovely, providing that one remembered to go for country walks, and to tune the wireless to music.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
04UndatedIn my world death will come chasing. In your world it will start whispering in your ear to destroy yourself. I know this because it started whispering to me when I was in the detention center.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
05UndatedBut what good is it to teach a child to count, if you don't show him that he counts for something?Chris Cleave / quote ↗
06UndatedSorry. But it isn’t for us to change how things are. I’m just an administrator. You’re just a teacher.”“Oh, I hope I don’t teach. Because look what we did: we saved the zoo animals and the nice children and we damned the afflicted and the blacks. You know what I do every day in that classroom? I do everything in my power to make sure those poor souls won’t learn the obvious lesson.”“If I were you,” said Tom, “I should stick to reading, writing and arithmetic.”“But what good is it to teach a child to count, if you don’t show him that he counts for something?Chris Cleave / quote ↗
07UndatedThey spoke of small things at first, since it was best, when reattaching threads, to begin with the easiest knots.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
09UndatedShe knew, now, why her father had not spoken of the last war, nor Alistair of his. It was hardly fair on the living.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
10UndatedI suppose we ought to be getting home, in any case.”“Oh god, is it wartime already?”“Look on the bright side: it’ll be dinner when we get back.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
12UndatedHer mother set to with the hairbrush again. “But would that be so awful, darling? To be the prettiest thing in Brimscombe-and-Thrupp?”“I should rather die.”“You nearly did.”“Yes, but I tend to blame the Germans.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
13UndatedThen I’m tempted to die just to … spite him.”“That’s the spirit that will win us the war.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
14UndatedThere in the sweet sacking smell of the mail bags he understood that he was dying, and it pleased him that he was going in the company of so many soft words home.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
15UndatedEverything can be restored. If one won't believe that, how does one endure all this?Chris Cleave / quote ↗
16UndatedOne didn't understand, until one had seen a great many bodies, the unconscious effort that one must be making every minute simply to keep one's hands and face and clothes clean. The world's surfaces were so filthy that the living touched them only with the tips of their fingers and the soles of their shoes. How grubby it was to die, to give up making that effort.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
17UndatedThis helpful war. It makes us better people and then it tries to kill us.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
18UndatedThere was less of him now. There was less of them all. Officers and men dragged themselves around in uniforms three sizes too big, new holes punched into every belt, every collar hanging loose. They were a garrison of skinny boys performing a play about soldiers.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
19UndatedAlistair smiled. 'How long this war has been.''I'll say. One hardly remembers how we lived before. Lightly - not worrying much.''Do you suppose we shall ever live that way again?''Oh, who knows? Given sufficient champagne and ether.''Maybe if we stay drunk to the end of our days we shan't remember.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
20UndatedI move we get more wine,' Alistair said. 'What does the panel think?'...It was obvious that the entire war could be solved in this way. The trick would be to reach for a corkscrew instead, every time some brass hat ordered artillery.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
21Undatedon a bike ride through the Surrey Lanes, pedalling in my cotton dress through the hot fields blushing with poppies, freewheeling down a sudden dip into a cool wooded sanctum.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
24UndatedI want to be a journalist again. I want to make a difference in the world.Chris Cleave / quote ↗
