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2e4fb13
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One day at a time, sweet Jesus. Whoever wrote that one hadn't a clue. A day is a fuckin' eternity
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alcoholism
recovery
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Roddy Doyle |
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3ab389c
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It was a sign of growing up, when the dark made no more difference to you than the day.
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Roddy Doyle |
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d3e2997
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Fuck was the best word. The most dangerous word. You couldn't whisper it. Fuck was always too loud, too late to stop it, it burst in the air above you and fell slowly right over your head. There was total silence, nothing but Fuck floating down. For a few seconds you were dead, waiting for Henno to look up and see Fuck landing on top of you. They were thrilling seconds-when he didn't look up. It was a word you couldn't say anywhere. It woul..
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Roddy Doyle |
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40581e1
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To claim that music is more important than oxygen would be trite and sentimental. It would also be true.
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Roddy Doyle |
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a7e9de8
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Dreaming was only nice while it lasted.
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Roddy Doyle |
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753e005
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We parked our bikes on verges so they could graze.
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verges
grass
childhood
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Roddy Doyle |
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36afe42
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It's the only thing sexier than a sexy woman. A sexy woman cooking fuckin' sausages.
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sexy-humor
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Roddy Doyle |
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77fe8ca
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She'd tried her hand at most things, but drew the line at honesty.
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Roddy Doyle |
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7d6f6cc
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Sometimes, when you were thinking about something, trying to understand it, it opened up in your head without you expecting it to, like it was a soft spongy light unfolding, and you understood, it made sense forever...
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paddy-clarke
roddy-doyle
coming-of-age
growing-up
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Roddy Doyle |
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02f52f1
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There were days when I didn't exist; he saw through me and walked around me. I was invisible. There were days when I liked not existing. I closed down, stopped thinking, stopped looking...There were days when I couldn't even feel pain. They were the best ones. I could see it happening. There was no ground under me, nothing to fall to. I was able to not care. I could float. I didn't exist
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Roddy Doyle |
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e4d6832
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I remember I wanted to get away; I wanted to run. I couldn't stand any more. But I didn't want to run. I wanted everything to be perfect; everything was going to be great - I just had to be careful. I was responsible for it all. The clouds coming, I was dragging them towards us; my thoughts were doing it. I was ruining everything. It was up to me. I could control the whole day. All I had to do was make sure that I made no stupid mistakes. D..
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Roddy Doyle |
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03f8fc3
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I swooned the first time I saw Charlo. I actually did. I didn't faint or fall on the floor but my legs went rubbery on me and I giggled. I suddenly knew that I had lungs because they were empty and collapsing.
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romance
love
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Roddy Doyle |
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95a7bcb
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Do ghosts drink tea? They don't, said Tansey. But this ghost would love to see a cup of tea in front of her. It'd be lovely.
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tea
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Roddy Doyle |
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450ac40
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If you were going to be best friends with anyone - Kevin - you had to hate a lot of other people, the two of you, together. It made you better friends.
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Roddy Doyle |
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9873ab4
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She's happier than Nicola. That's probably true. Alcoholics can stop drinking but what is there for the children of alcoholics? Is it always too late? Probably. She doesn't know.
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children-of-alcoholics
children
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Roddy Doyle |
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4f70385
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He loved me and he beat me. I loved him and I took it. It's as simple as that, and as stupid and complicated. It's terrible. It's like knowing someone you love is dead but not having the body to prove it. He loved me. I know it.
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Roddy Doyle |
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2ae1d08
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I was the ref. I was the ref they didn't know about. Deaf and dumb. Invisible as a wall. I wanted no one to win
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divorce-separation-children
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Roddy Doyle |
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e5cbed2
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It was frightening, though, how little time you got. You only became yourself when you were twenty-three or twenty-four. A few years later, you had an old man's chest hair. It wasn't worth it.
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Roddy Doyle |
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b7396af
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I love yeh, son, said Jimmy Sr. He could say it and no one could hear him, except young Jimmy, because of the singing and roaring and breaking glasses. -I think you're fuckin' great, said Jimmy Sr. -Ah fuck off, will yeh, said Jimmy Jr. -Packie saved the fuckin' penalty, not me. But he liked what he'd heard, Jimmy Sr could tell that. He gave Jimmy Sr a dig in the stomach. -You're not a bad oul' cunt yourself, he said.
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Roddy Doyle |
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cb6fcee
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I live on an island called Ireland where most of the music is shite. I grew up listening to "Danny Boy"; I grew up hating Danny Boy, and all his siblings and his granny. "The pipes, the pipes are caw-haw-hawing." Anything with pipes or fiddles or even - forgive me, Paul - banjos, I detested. Songs of loss, of love, of going across the sea; songs of defiance and rebellion - I vomited on all of them."
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Roddy Doyle |
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33899bf
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Head in the book. Nose sliding down the valley between the pages.
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Roddy Doyle |
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f256e79
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I knew all the books in the house. I knew their shapes and smells. I knew what pages would open if I held them with the spine on the ground and let the sides drop. I knew all the books but I couldn't remember the name of the one on my head.
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Roddy Doyle |
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f9f6626
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I cried, a bit, as a spoke to Belinda on my mobile phone, in a quiet corner, perhaps the only quiet corner in Jaipur. I told her how I'd hoped Paul would read the forward, that he'd read how much I admired his work and how much I admired him, how much I just plain liked him and loved him. But, even as I spoke, I knew: Paul had always known that. He'd seen in on my face every time we met. What made me cry was the obvious, stupid fact that we..
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Roddy Doyle |
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c39c38f
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I jumped on Sinbad's bottle. Nothing happened. I didn't do it again. Sometimes when nothing happened it was really getting ready to happen
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humour
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Roddy Doyle |
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d9aa79a
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Contact J. Rabbitte, 118, Chestnut Ave., Dublin 21. Rednecks and southsiders need not apply.
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Roddy Doyle |
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2dc468b
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Four generations of women--"I'm a woman," Mary said to herself--heading off on a journey in a car. One of the dead, one of them dying, one of the driving, one of them just staring out."
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Roddy Doyle |
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df2efa0
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lalala
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Roddy Doyle |
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12115f8
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Brother Jimmy, said Joey the Lips. - I'm worried. - About Dean. - Wha' abou' Dean? - He told me he's been listening to jazz. - What's wrong with tha'? Jimmy wanted to know. - Everything, said Joey the Lips. - Jazz is the antithesis of soul. - I beg your fuckin' pardon! - I'll go along with Joey there, said Mickah. - See, said Joey the Lips. - Soul is the people's music. Ordinary people making music for ordinary people. - Simple music..
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music
the-commitments
soul
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Roddy Doyle |
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965b71c
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We'll cry," she said. "An then we'll stop. Because it's only a house."
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Roddy Doyle |
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d2520f1
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And even the aches and pains that had joined her as she got older--she'd liked them. They were reminders--the back, the knee, the achy wrists--they were even friends: Feel that now, Emer. You're alive.
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Roddy Doyle |
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b9c43f5
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They were joking, but it was a serious conversation. They were often like that, Mary and her granny, when they were alone together.
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Roddy Doyle |
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381498d
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If you just watch and listen you'll get better answers.
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Roddy Doyle |
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3e3cc83
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She was in the book again and, by the time she got to page-turning time again, she'd forgetting I was there.
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Roddy Doyle |
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b30c754
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Jesus, she said. -Are you in there at all? -I am, Annie, I told her. -Bursting to get out.
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Roddy Doyle |
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eef0f1a
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They didn't understand. They didn't understand that robbing had nothing to do with what we wanted; it was the dare, the terror, the getting away with it.
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Roddy Doyle |
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3a64d9b
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They were our friends because we hated them; it was good to have them around. I was cleaner than them, brainier than them. I was better than them.
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Roddy Doyle |
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46831cb
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Not songs abou' Fianna fuckin' Fail or annythin' like tha'. Real politics. (They weren't with him.) --Where are yis from? (He answered the question himself.) --Dublin. (He asked another one.) --Wha' part o' Dublin? Barrytown. Wha' class are yis? Workin' class. Are yis proud of it? Yeah, yis are. (Then a practical question.) --Who buys the most records? The workin' class. Are yis with me? (Not really.) --Your music should be abou' where you'..
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Roddy Doyle |
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3593688
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Terror. That was it.
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Roddy Doyle |
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5e39038
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The family trees of the poor don't grow to any height.
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poverty
family-trees
poor
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Roddy Doyle |
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924f47b
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It's gas but, isn't it? How we get suckered in. Some prick in a white coat says if you eat all o' your peas Gina Lollobrigida will sit on your face.
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Roddy Doyle |
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4eb2a48
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They'd had a fight again. - You'll have your work cut out for you, I said. One of their quiet ones. She laughed. Where they whispered their screams and roaring. She laughed at me. And she was always the first one to cry and he kept stabbing at her with his face and his words.
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Roddy Doyle |
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27a04b1
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Gloria screamed, but nothing came out. She could feel the scream in her throat, but it was clinging there, too scared to climb out of her mouth. Raymond might have screamed, too--he wasn't sure. His face was an exploding red ball--that was what it felt like. His heart was in the middle of his head. He couldn't see a thing.
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fear
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Roddy Doyle |
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5045324
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The worst was when there was nothing in the sky, nothing to grab, blue blue blue.
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Roddy Doyle |
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69a1e07
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I was going. I couldn't stay here. Every breath of its stale air, every square inch of the place mocked me, grabbed at my ankles. It needed blood to survive and it wasn't going to get mine.
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Roddy Doyle |