Bainbridge Quotes & Sayings

I like Beryl Bainbridge a great deal, and she is a writer who absolutely demands to be read a second, third, and fourth time. I admire her great courage in leaving so much unsaid and asking the reader to really engage her brain. — Monica Ali

An intelligent and conscientious opposition is a part of loyalty to country. — Bainbridge Colby

Nothing is so sad as the injustices of old age. — Beryl Bainbridge

No one had experiences any more, only traumas. — Beryl Bainbridge

Life was absurd, she thought, bouncing her up and down as if she were a rubber ball. She longed to lose height and roll away into a corner and be forgotten. — Beryl Bainbridge

Mrs MacFarley called the valley the Glen. She called the light at early evening the gloaming. She liked to go Roaming in the Gloaming in the Glen. — Beryl Bainbridge

That does not mean that we must forego just and fair criticism, or refrain from opposition to policies which are debatable or which do not command our approval. — Bainbridge Colby

I've never been drawn to the feminist movement. I was brought up to believe that men had little to do with the home or children - except to bring in the money. — Beryl Bainbridge

When passion is mutual, there is always the danger of the fire burning to ashes. — Beryl Bainbridge

The modern geography of the brain has a deliciously antiquated feel to it - rather like a medieval map with the known world encircled by terra incognito where monsters roam. — David Bainbridge

Emotions weren't like washing. There was no call to peg them out for all the world to view. — Beryl Bainbridge

Citizens everywhere, and especially soldiers, should remember that entrenched bureaucracy, whatever the level, can be overcome. You've got to stick to it, be polite but firm, and just not take no for an answer. — William G. Bainbridge

Like pictures, men should be judged by their merits and not by their defects. — Bainbridge Colby

Apart from anything else, salt is one thing it should be pretty much impossible for Liverpool to run out of, along with uncles who used to go to school with John Lennon. We're right next door to Cheshire, which is almost entirely salt, apart from a sparse crust of WAGs and Mercedes. And we live on an island, surrounded by seawater. — Gary Bainbridge

There are a few rules in investigations, and one is to never cringe at the person's appearance that you're about to pump for info. — Ruth Bainbridge

Some people find it comfortable to go through life on their knees, and good luck to them, but I prefer to keep my spine in the position nature intended. — Beryl Bainbridge

Arriving on Bainbridge Island is the opposite of arriving in Seattle. When you got in your car and waited to unload off the ferry in Seattle, you saw the Space Needle, cars, and a mound of urban construction. Once you exit the ferry terminal on Bainbridge, however, it's mostly trees. Pine as far as the eye can see. Well, pines, firework and coffee stands, and eventually a casino. You drive through the Port Madison Indian Reservation when you leave the island. I couldn't help but smile as I went past the casino. I didn't really get gambling, since I'd never had money to throw away, but as I passed through all the beautiful countryside that I'm sure once belonged to the tribe, I sort of hoped they would rob the white man blind. Perhaps not politically correct, but the feeling was there all the same. — Lish McBride

I was scared for my life, but at the same time I couldn't help noticing how bright everything was, the ice not really blue at all but shot through with spangled points of rosy light so dazzling that it made me crinkle up my eyes as though I had something to smile about, and there was a shadow cast by the Owner's shoulder that washed from seagreen to purple as he twisted in his traces. — Beryl Bainbridge

At night when they prepared for bed Freda removed all her clothes and lay like a great fretful baby, majestically dimpled and curved. Brenda wore her pajamas and her underwear and a tweed coat - that was the difference between them. — Beryl Bainbridge

Loyalty will not permit envy, hate, and uncharitableness to creep into our public thinking. — Bainbridge Colby

The good NCO has never been short in confidence, either to perform the mission or to inform the superior that he or she was interfering with traditional NCO business. — William G. Bainbridge

What we remember is probably fiction anyway. — Beryl Bainbridge

The social and industrial structure of America is founded upon an enlightened citizenship. — Bainbridge Colby

We must be loyal to the forum of our government. — Bainbridge Colby

I am deeply concerned with the diminution of the teaching strength of the country as a result of the disproportionately low salaries that are paid to teachers throughout the country. — Bainbridge Colby

Women are programmed to love completely, and men are programmed to spread it around. We are fools to think it's any different. — Beryl Bainbridge

1.
"Ahem. I know you hate Mondays, madam, but you picked the absolutely wrong one to play hooky. Or be sick. Yes, I suppose it's vaguely possible that you are actually sick. Anyway, here we are at lunch, Sadie and I, witnessing total social disorder. Your friend Alexander Bainbridge is sitting at the usual table, but facing the room. Amanda Alstead is sitting at Table One. Or, should I say,sitting more or less on a Phillite senior boy, whose name is unimportant, at Table One. A very nice young lady at the next table over-you know, the one who writes about Mr. Darcy-has just informeed us that Amanda dumpled Alex over the break. On Thanksgiving Day,no less. By e-mail. No telling how much truth is there, but a lot more than a kernal, I would say. We have a large, seven-dollar bag o' movie popcorn here. Thought you'd like to know. Call me. — Melissa Jensen

...he raised his eyes above the black shapes of the trees and saw a small moon, the colour of a lemon, dragged by clouds across the sky. Moons, he thought, were so that men like himself would know they lived here on earth. — Beryl Bainbridge

With so many forty- and fifty something mums and dads in Converse stalking the streets, I can see why there's a slew of books about the menopause and middle age, the most recent addition being David Bainbridge's plucky, glass-half-full meditation or, as he calls it, 'natural history.' — Rachel Johnson

There is nothing more guaranteed to reduce a man to the essentials than to live beneath the sky. — Beryl Bainbridge

The prize I value most was given to me 60 years ago. I was named the girl with the cleanest fingernails. — Beryl Bainbridge

But we must not, if we are loyal, disperse our energies in a partisan warfare that is waged without regard to its consequences to the well being, security, or honor of the country. — Bainbridge Colby

A liberty subject to law and subordinate to the common welfare. — Bainbridge Colby

The core of a soldier is moral discipline. It is intertwined with the discipline of physical and mental achievement. It motivates doing on your own what is right without prodding. It is an inner critic that refuses to tolerate less than your best. Total discipline overcomes adversity and physical stamina draws on an inner strength that says "drive on". — William G. Bainbridge

Moonlight lined the windowsills like a fall of snow. — Beryl Bainbridge

A man bears the weight of his own body without knowing it, but he soon feels the weight of any other object. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that a man cannot forget- but not himself. — Beryl Bainbridge

It is a high patriotic duty that we support and sustain the men who have been placed in position of difficulty, burden, responsibility, and even danger as the result of our suffrages. — Bainbridge Colby

There are many things in this life capable of throwing people off course - the death of someone close, the loss of income or health, the realisation that cherished hopes cannot always be fulfilled — Beryl Bainbridge

Bainbridge Island could never hide its glory, even under the cover of darkness. I watched from the window as the ferry loomed into Eagle Harbor, passing the island's pebble-covered shores and shake-shingled homes that clung courageously to the hillside. Glowing orange interiors beckoned, as if the people inside were making one extra place as they gathered around fireplaces to sip wine or hot cocoa. — Sarah Jio

So,if it's all love or money, which is Alex Bainbridge?"
I blinked at him. "What?"
"He's a turd, Ella. He looked right through you like you were a ghost, but you still have a thing for him."
"I do n-"
"Don't even. You've gone through the whole week watching for him. So what is it? I would really like to know. Love or money?"
"I have not been watching for him!" I snapped. Oh, but I had, in every hallway, at lunch, when I took my seat at the edge of English class. "And if I have, it's just so I can look away first."
Frankie rolled his eyes. "Shall I get you a pail of water?"
"Why?"
"Your pants are on fire."
I actually looked down at my lap. "Oh, very funny." I shot Sadie a look when she giggled. — Melissa Jensen

I've never been put down by a man, unless I deserved it, and have never felt inferior, — Beryl Bainbridge

The next day,' I'd conclude, 'when we'd returned safely to base camp, ice flowers had formed on the newly frozen sea, sculptured blooms like those waxen wreaths in the cemeteries of home. — Beryl Bainbridge

Julia follows the beach, the sand that is so white it makes her doubt the beaches in Heaven could possibly be any whiter, the water like peacock feathers lapping at the shore, vivid green blue going hyacinth out where the sea starts getting deep. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

It is the generation of the unemphatic. Steal, kill, lie, fornicate, but beware of indulging with conviction. — Beryl Bainbridge

When I got a telly we had no aerial, but I discovered that if I or one of the children stood by it you could get a picture. So I had to make a statue that could stand by the telly. — Beryl Bainbridge

The sun burnt on, drugging everything with warmth. — Beryl Bainbridge

America stands for individual liberty, but that means an ordered liberty. — Bainbridge Colby

We must stifle the voice of hatred and faction. — Bainbridge Colby

Everything else you grow out of, but you never recover from childhood. — Beryl Bainbridge

The goal of the corps of NCOs, whose duty is the day-to-day business of running the Army so that the officer corps has time to command it, is to continue to improve our Army at every turn. We want to leave it better than we found it. Regardless of the kind of unit you're in, it ought to be an "elite" outfit, because its NCOs can make it one. — William G. Bainbridge

Thus, only in a hopeful and confident temper, in a proud and constructive spirit, will we rescue the present and safeguard the future of our beloved country. — Bainbridge Colby

The older one becomes the quicker the present fades into sepia and the past looms up in glorious technicolour — Beryl Bainbridge

Well, I woke up one morning around Christmas, went as far as the shops, and when I got to the corner I felt this violent pain in me left leg. I mentioned it to my daughter and she took me instantly to the hospital. It turned out it was vasculitis. In other words, you can have your leg off. — Beryl Bainbridge

It seems to me that a mutually beneficial relationship between a man and woman requires the man to be dominant. A sensible woman will allow the man to think he is the most important partner. — Beryl Bainbridge

Listen, Liar Liar, you promised. Enough with Alex Bainbridge."
Home truths are not meant to be comfortable, I know.Frankie knows it, too, and for a teeny tiny second, I hated him just a teeny tiny bit for knowing just where to stick the pin.
I glared at him. "How did this go from being about Sadie to an assault on my honesty? Huh?"
He shrugged. "I love you, Fiorella. We ain't got no money, honey, but we got love."
I've never been able to hate Frankie for more than a second at a time. — Melissa Jensen

I grew up in the Bay Area until 1976, then I pretty much went all the way through primary and high school on Bainbridge, though like anybody who grows up on an island, I ran the first chance I got. — Jonathan Evison

The test of good citizenship is loyalty to country. — Bainbridge Colby

The mind is like the wind and the body like the sand: if you want to know how the wind is blowing , you can look at the sand. — Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen

I left him and went up on deck to look out at the slithering city, its glitter of street lamps fizzy under the rain. There's something wrong about a ship in dock, something pathetic, like a bird fluttering in a spill of oil. The Nova was tethered to her berth by ropes and chains, caught in a pool of greasy water. I could feel her shifting under my feet, tugging to be free. — Beryl Bainbridge

Americanism demands loyalty to the teacher and respect for his lesson. — Bainbridge Colby

And one cannot discharge the duty of loyalty without the patient and an open minded study of the institution that marked the country and defined its character. — Bainbridge Colby

I don't know why everybody doesn't write because everybody talks. — Beryl Bainbridge

The vital accessories to my work are my reference books, such as the complete Shakespeare and a prayer book, and a large refuse bin. — Beryl Bainbridge

Once the grammar has been learned, writing is simply talking on paper and in time learning what not to say. — Beryl Bainbridge

All those ninnies have it wrong. The best thing about Seattle is the weather. The world over, people have ocean views. But across our ocean is Bainbridge Island, an evergreen curb, and over it the exploding, craggy, snow-scraped Olympics. I guess what I'm saying: I miss it, the mountains and the water. — Maria Semple

Being constantly with children was like wearing a pair of shoes that were expensive and too small. She couldn't bear to throw them out, but they gave her blisters. — Beryl Bainbridge

It wasn't all misery. On one of our halts we lay spreadeagled on the ice and stared up at a sky blazing with the glory of the most wonderful aurora I'd ever witnessed. I groaned beneath the splendour of those silken curtains, yellow, green, and orange, billowing at the window of the heavens. — Beryl Bainbridge

I ask you to keep in mind that you will be disappointed only to the extent that your desires or expectations fall out of harmony with reality. — Jim Bainbridge

Pregnancy is a uniquely intimate relationship between two people. All of us luxuriate in this relationship once, and half of us are lucky enough to be able to do it all over again a second time, from the other side as it were. Never again outside of pregnancy can we be so truly intwined with someone else, no matter how hard we try. — David Bainbridge