The collection / 45 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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45 results · Page 2 of 2Play this collection ▷

01c. 1992 AD

In the days when wishing was having, I got what I wished and then I wish I hadn't.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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02c. 1992 AD

Goodbye, Room." I wave up at Skylight. "Say goodbye," I tell Ma. "Goodbye, Room."Ma says it but on mute.I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened. Then we go out the door.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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03c. 1992 AD

I think she was too tired to play anymore, she was in a hurry to get to Heaven so she didn't wait, why didn't she wait for me?

Emma Donoghue / quote

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04c. 1992 AD

Maybe I’m a human, but I’m a me-and-Ma as well.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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05c. 1992 AD

Everyone's got a different story.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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06c. 1992 AD

This is a bad story.”“Sorry. I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have told you.”“No, you should,” I say.“But—”“I don’t want there to be bad stories and me not know them.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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07c. 1992 AD

Outside has everything. Whenever I think of a thing now like skis or fireworks or islands or elevators or yo-yos, I have to remember they're real, they're actually happening in Outside all together. It makes my head tired. And people too, firefighters teachers burglars babies saints soccer players and all sorts, they're all really in Outside. I'm not there, though, me and Ma, we're the only ones not there. Are we still real?

Emma Donoghue / quote

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08c. 1992 AD

...everyone goes home in the end.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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09c. 1992 AD

Nowadays 'invisibility' was supposed to be the big problem, but the way I saw it was, all that mattered was to be visible to yourself.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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10c. 1992 AD

I may have had moments of regret in my life, but you know, they wouldn't add up to an hour.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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11c. 1992 AD

Keep your heart infinitesimally small and sorrow will never spy it, never plunge, never flap away with your heart in her claws.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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12c. 1992 AD

You know who you belong to, Jack?”“Yeah.”“Yourself.”He’s wrong, actually, I belong to Ma.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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13c. 1992 AD

[E]verywhere I'm looking at kids, adults mostly don't seem to like them, not even the parents do. They call the kids gorgeous and so cute, they make the kids do the thing all over again so they can take a photo, but they don't want to actually play with them, they'd rather drink coffee talking to other adults. Sometimes there's a small kid crying and the Ma of it doesn't even hear.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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14c. 1992 AD

That's what you got for being a servant of no ambition: a shrunken life, hung up like a gibbet as a warning to others.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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15c. 1992 AD

A lot of the world seems to repeat itself

Emma Donoghue / quote

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16c. 1992 AD

In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time. Even Grandma often says that, but she and Steppa don't have jobs, so I don't know how persons with jobs do the jobs and all the living as well. In Room me and Ma had time for everything. I guess the time gets spread very thing like butter over all the world, the roads and houses and playgrounds and stores, so there's only a little smear of time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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17c. 1992 AD

And tonight Mary could taste bitterness going down like a nut, settling in her stomach. It planted itself, put down roots, and began to grow, nourished on her dark blood.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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18c. 1992 AD

Sometimes you must shed your skin to save it.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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19c. 1992 AD

At the door, there was one of those moment when two people realize that they like each other more than they know each other. This is nicer than the opposite situation, but more awkward. You try to remember the protocol for touching. You hate to gush, or presume to much, yet you are unwilling to let the moment pass without without some gesture

Emma Donoghue / quote

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20c. 1992 AD

Is there a word for adults when they aren't parents?"Steppa laughs. "Folks with other things to do?""Like what things?""Jobs, I guess. Friends. Trips. Hobbies.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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21c. 1992 AD

I tend to be so lost in the work that I don't notice the weather. My partner will come home and say, 'Beautiful day, wasn't it?' and I'll say, 'Was it?' as I won't have noticed the real world at all.

Emma Donoghue / quote

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