01Undated...that human hunger birthed the Civ'lize, but human hunger killed it too.David Mitchell / quote ↗
02UndatedThe clock’s pendulum catches the firelight, and in the rattle-breathed final moments of Jacob de Zoet, amber shadows in the far corner coagulate into a woman’s form. She slips between the bigger, taller onlookers unnoticed … … and adjusts her headscarf, the better to hide her burn. She places her cool palms on Jacob’s fever-glazed face.Jacob sees himself, when he was young, in her narrow eyes. Her lips touch the place between his eyebrows. A well-waxed paper door slides open.David Mitchell / quote ↗
05UndatedWhat man ain't the honestest cove in his own eyes?" Grote's round face is a bronze moon in the dark. "'Tain't good intentions what paves the road to hell: it's self-justifyin's.David Mitchell / quote ↗
06Undated... in a cycle as old as tribalism, ignorance of the Other engenders fear; fear engenders hatred; hatred engenders violence; violence engenders further violence until the only "rights", the only law, are whatever is willed by the most powerful.David Mitchell / quote ↗
07UndatedThe potatoes were starch grenades. The canned carrots were revolting because that is their nature.David Mitchell / quote ↗
08UndatedProbably in a parallel universe not far from here, I'm working for Nintendo.David Mitchell / quote ↗
09UndatedFinished in a frenzy that reminded me of our last night in Cambridge. Watched my final sunrise. Enjoyed a last cigarette. Didn’t think the view could be any more perfect until I saw that beat-up trilby. Honestly, Sixsmith, as ridiculous as that thing makes you look, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anything more beautiful. Watched you for as long as I dared. I don’t believe it was a fluke that I saw you first. I believe there is another world waiting for us, Sixsmith. A better world, and I’ll be waiting for you there. I believe we do not stay dead long. Find me beneath the Corsican stars, where we first kissed.Yours eternally, R.F.David Mitchell / quote ↗
10UndatedPerfume counters in department stores, Holly Deblin smells of, the middle of July, and cinnamon Tic Tacs.David Mitchell / quote ↗
11UndatedThe human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature.David Mitchell / quote ↗
14UndatedWhen a woman is interested in you, she’ll let you know; if not, there’s no aftershave, gift, or line you can spin to make her change her mind.David Mitchell / quote ↗
15UndatedOnly I don't close my eyes these days, because it hurts too much when I open them.David Mitchell / quote ↗
16UndatedBut this isn't a ghost story: the ghost is in the background, where she has to be. If she was in the foreground she'd be a person.David Mitchell / quote ↗
17UndatedLunatics are writers whose works write them, Bat." "Not all lunatics are writers, Mrs. Rey-believe me." "But most writers are lunatics, Bat-believe me. The human world is made up of stories, not people.David Mitchell / quote ↗
18UndatedWhen you write it, don't write it in the manner of a spooky story. Don't try to give an explanation. Just say that I don't know what to make of it, just write it like I tell it, so the reader can make up his own mind.David Mitchell / quote ↗
19UndatedSo winners, Hae-Joo proposed, are the real losers because they learn nothing? What, then, are losers? Winners?David Mitchell / quote ↗
20UndatedRootlessness," I opine, "is the twenty-first century norm.""You're not wrong and that's why we're in the shit we're in, mate. If you belong nowhere, why give a tinker's toss about anywhere?David Mitchell / quote ↗
21UndatedTaro taught me that people respect spirit, but even cowards don't respect cowards.David Mitchell / quote ↗
22UndatedA writer flirts with schizophrenia, nurtures synesthesia, and embraces obsessive-compulsive disorder. Your art feeds on you, your soul, and, yes, to a degree, your sanity. Writing novels worth reading will bugger up your mind, jeopardize your relationships, and distend your life. You have been warned.David Mitchell / quote ↗
23UndatedThe novelist is more like a pregnant woman who delivers her own child unaided. A messy procedure, with lots of groaning.David Mitchell / quote ↗
24UndatedYou groan and shake your head, Sixsmith, I know, but you smile too, which is why I love you.David Mitchell / quote ↗
