Nicholls Quotes & Sayings

Ah, solving that question Brings the priest and the doctor In their — David Nicholls

realist works I look for detail; 'Look at the eyelashes! — David Nicholls

Anyway, that's why you do it. Not to be famous, just to be good. To do good work. Find the thing you really love doing, and do it to the best of your ability. — David Nicholls

No Scrabble. More and more of his friends were playing it now, in a knowing ironic way, triple-word-score-craving freaks, but it seemed to him like a game designed expressly to make him feel stupid and bored. — David Nicholls

She had reached a turning point. She no longer believed that a situation could be made better by writing a poem about it. — David Nicholls

There's a saying, cited in popular song, that if you love someone you must set them free. Well, that's just nonsense. If you love someone, you bind them to you with heavy metal chains. — David Nicholls

Josh likes to say he put the funk in 'functional'. Personally I think he just put the ass in 'embarrassing', but, hey, what do I know? — David Nicholls

In America, we met this guy who'd been in the army. He'd been over in the Iraq war. He said that our CD helped him get through a hard time in the Iraq war. It's amazing to know that we helped him in some way. It's definitely cool. — Mattew Nicholls

Brian: I love books
Prof. Morrison: The contents of books, or just owning a whole load of books? — David Nicholls

Living in her University town felt like stayng on at a party that everyone else had left. — David Nicholls

I think probably I'm quite sentimental; I like big emotional stories, I like being moved by things, but I think I'm very embarrassed by sentiment. I'm very embarrassed by corniness. — David Nicholls

She glanced across to where Tilly and her brand new husband were posing for photographs, Tilly fluttering a fan coquettishly in front of her face. 'Unfortunately I didn't realise there was a French Revolutionary theme.'
'The Marie-Antoinette thing?' said Dexter. 'Well at least we know there'll be cake. — David Nicholls

Imagine staying awake all night not because you're worried about the future but because it's FUN — David Nicholls

He had heard religious people talk about having revelatory experiences. Like there was one moment where everything became clear to them and all the crap and ephemera just floated away. It had always seemed pretty unlikely to him. But the Ed Nicholls had one such moment in a log cabin beside a stretch of water that might have been a lake, or might well have been a canal for all he could tell ... And he realized in that moment that he had to make things right. — Jojo Moyes

Next thing I know you've run off to Paris and thrown yourself under the nearest Frenchman- — Nicholls David

Was it the happiest day of our lives? Probably not, if only because the truly happy days tend not to involve so much organisation, are rarely so public or so expensive. The happy ones sneak up, unexpected. — David Nicholls

I work three days at home, and two days in the British Library or the London Library, just to get out of the house and hide from the children. — David Nicholls

Things should look right, Fun; there should be a lot of fun and no more sadness than absolutely necessary — David Nicholls

It's like everyone has a central dilemma in their life, and mine was can you be in a committed, mature, loving adult relationship and still get invited to threesomes? - Dexter Mayhew — David Nicholls

I love that sound,' he mumbled into her hair. 'Blackbirds at dawn.'
'I hate it. Makes me think I've done something I'll regret. — David Nicholls

What she really needed he thought, ablaze with compassion, was someone to take her in hand and unlock her potential. — David Nicholls

There's something unnatural about a woman finding babies or, more specifically, conversation about babies, boring. They'll think she's bitter, jealous, lonely. But she's also bored of everybody telling her how lucky she is, what with all that sleep and all that freedom and spare time, the ability to go on dates or head off to Paris at a moments notice. It sounds like they're consoling her, and she resents this and feels patronized by it. — David Nicholls

Maybe I've just read too many novels. In novels, alcoholics are always attractive and fuuny and charming and complex, like Sebastian Flyte or ABe North in Tender in the Night, and they're drinking because of a deep, unquenchable sadness of the soul, or the terrible legacy of the First World War, whereas I just get drunk because I'm thirsty, and I like the taste of lager ... — David Nicholls

I've been a compulsive reader for as long as I can remember. — David Nicholls

I had made this mistake once before, on a school trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum, when I followed a sign marked WOMEN, thinking it was an exhibition on the changing roles of women in society, and actually ended up standing in the ladies' toilets. — David Nicholls

I don't mind, it doesn't hurt me if anyone says I'm not normal. I don't know what normal is. Sometimes I'm just really tired, or I haven't eaten, and people get the wrong idea about me. — Craig Nicholls

At some point, I'd like to have an origina l idea. And I'd like to be fancied, or maybe loved even, but I'll wait and see. — David Nicholls

Their friendship was like a wilted bunch of flowers that she insisted on topping up with water. Why not let it die instead? — David Nicholls

But the trouble with living in the moment is that the moment passes. Impulse and spontaneity take no account of the longer term, of responsibilities and obligations, debts to be paid, promises to fulfil. I — David Nicholls

Dads had favourite armchairs in which they sat like starship captains, issuing orders and receiving cups of tea and shouting at the news without fear of contradiction. — David Nicholls

He's laughing me into a stupor, she thought. I could heckle, I suppose, I could throw a bread roll at him, but he's eaten them all. She glanced at the other diners, all of them going into their act, and thought is this what it all boils down to? Romantic love, is this all it is, a talent show? Eat a meal, go to bed, fall in love with me and I promise you years and years of top notch material like this? — David Nicholls

So must people hate their jobs.That's why they're called it jobs — David Nicholls

By contrast, my wife at fifty-two yeas old seems to me just as attractive as the day I first met her. If I were to say this out loud, she would say, 'Douglas, that's just a line. No one prefers wrinkles, no one prefers grey.' To which I'd reply, 'But none of this is a surprise. I've been expecting to watch you grow older ever since we met. Why should it trouble me? It's the face itself that I love, not that face at twenty-eight or thirty-four or fourty-three. It's that face.'
Perhaps she would have liked to hear this but I had never got around to saying it out loud. I had always presumed there would be time and now, sitting on the edge of the bed at four a.m., no longer listening out for burglars, it seemed that it might be too late. — David Nicholls

I read a lot of F. Scott Fitzgerald. I love 'Tender is the Night,' and its atmosphere of doomed romance. He was one of the greatest prose stylists, with a wonderfully clear but lyrical quality. — David Nicholls

How about you then, Brian, any action?'
'Not really.' This sounds a bit feeble, so I add, nonchalantly, There is this girl, Alice, and she's invited me to stay with her tomorrow, at her cottage, so . . .'
'Her cottage? says Spencer. 'What is she? A milkmaid?'
'You know, a house, in the country, her parents' . . .'
'So you're shagging her then?' asks Tone.
'It's platonic.'
'What's platonic mean then?' asks Spencer, even though he knows.
'It means she won't let him shag her,' says Tone. — David Nicholls

I can't believe it's actually happening. This is independent adulthood, this is what it feels like. Shouldn't there be some sort of ritual? In certain remote African tribes there'd be some incredible four day rites of passage ceremony involving tattooing and potent hallucinogenic drugs extracted from tree-frogs, and village elders smearing my body with monkey blood, but here,rites of passage is all about three new pairs of pants and stuffing your duvet in a bin-liner. — David Nicholls

I still find it absurdly difficult to concentrate on a novel if there's a phone or computer to hand; I have taken to locking them outside the room like noisy pets. — David Nicholls

But i hate this date, and will always hate this day every year fromnow on whenever it comes around — David Nicholls

Well, I don't think Hollywood's a dirty word at all, I love a lot of Hollywood films. — David Nicholls

had put them up to it, perhaps the chefs — David Nicholls

What are you doing?"
"Playing house" said Felix
"Do you want to come and pour the tea?"
Ella's not stupid. "You are not. — Sally Nicholls

There's no shortage of orphans in 19th-century literature, but it's hard to find a single happy, communicative, functional parental relationship in the whole of 'Great Expectations,' even among the minor characters. — David Nicholls

grief is as much regret for what we have never had as sorrow for what we have lost. As — David Nicholls

My first glimpse of the Adelaide Oval was given through the Victor Richardson Gates and up the ramp, and there it spread out before me, a green oasis. It was like another world opening up. — Barry Nicholls

When I was an actor, I worked with lots of men who had a bit of success early on, who were very good looking, who suddenly made a bit of money and who felt no embarrassment - and nor should they have done - about having a good time. — David Nicholls

Waking up is the strongest argument for full-blown misanthropy. — M.J. Nicholls

So? Most people hate their jobs. That's why they're called jobs. — David Nicholls

Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately ,experience new things, love and be loved. — David Nicholls

Douglas, you have an incredible capacity for missing the point. Will you listen to me, just for once? The debate does not matter. It's not about the issues. Albie might have been naive or ridiculous or pompous or all of those things, but you apologized. You said you were embarassed by him. You took the side of a bunch of arms-dealers! Bloddy bastard arms-dealers against your son - our son - and that was wrong, it was the wrong thing to do, because in a fight you side with the people you love. That's just how it is. — David Nicholls

I suppose the important thing is to make some sort of difference — David Nicholls

Recklessness, spontaneity didn't really suit her, she couldn't carry if off, the results were never what she hoped for. — David Nicholls

He had always imagined that some sort of emotional mental equipment was meant to arrive, when he was forty-five, say, or fifty, a kind of kit that would enable him to deal with the impending loss of a parent. If he were only in possession of this equipment, he would be just fine. He would be noble and selfless, wise and philosophical. — David Nicholls

This might sound really foolish, but when I came to Edinburgh in 1988 I had spent nearly all my life living south of Bristol, and I was just amazed that a city like Edinburgh was actually in the British isles. — David Nicholls

I'm not expressing myself very well - '
'Dexter, I understand you perfectly, that's the problem - — David Nicholls

Being a decent human being will require effort and energy ... — David Nicholls

I'm inclined to think that, after a certain age, our tastes, instincts and inclinations harden like concrete. — David Nicholls

I applied for the University of Life. Didn't get the grades. — David Nicholls

A joke was not a single-use item but something you brought out again and again until it fell apart in your hand like a cheap umbrella. — David Nicholls

It wasn't much of a plan, and already there had been mistakes. — David Nicholls

They spoke to each other in strange, strangulated voices, and lost the knack of making each other laugh, jeering at each other instead in a spiteful, mocking tone.
Their friendship was like a wilted bunch of flowers that she insisted on topping up with water.
Why not let it die instead?
It was unrealistic to expect a friendship to last forever, she had lots of other friends: the old college crowd, her friends from school, and Ian of course.
But whom to could she confide about Ian? Not Dexter, not anymore — David Nicholls

A screenplay is really an instruction manual, and it can be interpreted in any number of ways. The casting, the choice of location, the costumes and make-up, the actors' reading of a line or emphasis of a word, the choice of lens and the pace of the cutting - these are all part of the translation. — David Nicholls

I had always been led to believe that ageing was a slow and gradual process, the creep of a glacier. Now I realise that it happens in a rush, like snow falling off a roof. — David Nicholls

Gravity is the magnetic force holding you on to the planet and somehow you have to deal with it. — Carolyn Nicholls

David Holdaway was my stage name. I was an actor for about eight years in the '90s. I had to change my name because there was another David Nicholls, and I thought if I changed it to my mother's name, she'd be touched. — David Nicholls

Independence is the luxury of all those people who are too confident, and busy, and popular, and attractive to be just plain old lonely. And make no mistake, lonely is absolutely the worst thing to be. Tell someone that you've got a drink problem, or an eating disorder, or your dad died when you were a kid even, and you can almost see their eyes light up with the sheer fascinating drama and pathos of it all, because you've got an issue, something for them to get involved in, to talk about and analyse and discuss and maybe even cure. But tell someone you're lonely and of course they'll seem sympathetic, but look very carefully and you'll see one hand snaking behind their back, groping for the door handle, ready to make a run for it, as if loneliness itself were contagious. Because being lonely is just so banal, so shaming, so plain and dull and ugly. — David Nicholls

I'm not the consolation prize, Dex. I'm not something you resort to. I happen to think I'm worth more than that. — David Nicholls

As new dawns go, this one is depressingly like the old dawn. — David Nicholls

He wonders if he still might tell her that he loves her or, more tentatively, that he 'thinks he might be in love with her', which is both more touching and easier to back out of. — David Nicholls

Just kidding' was exactly what people wrote when they meant every word. — David Nicholls

Perhaps grief is as much regret for what we have never had as sorrow for what we have lost. — David Nicholls

In fact he was rather boring on the subject, but I kept quiet and took comfort in that old saying about fallen apples and their distance from trees. — David Nicholls

Well, it's so hard for books to take off. You give years of your life to something that probably won't happen, so when it does, it feels a little ... unjust. — David Nicholls

No-one ever built a statue of a critic. — David Nicholls

Not change the world exactly, just the bit around you. — David Nicholls

Cuddling was for great aunts and teddy bears. Cuddling gave him cramp. — David Nicholls

Fear and anxiety are great motivators for me. — David Nicholls

I was wary of my sister's cooking, which invariably consisted of a tubular pasta and economy cheese, charred black on the surface, with either tinned tuna or lardy mince lurking beneath the molten crust ... So that evening, in a tiny flat in Tooting, I was pushed into the tiny kitchen where sixteen people sat crammed around a tiny trestle table designed for pasting wallpaper, one of my sister's notorious pasta bakes smouldering in its centre like a meteorite, smelling of toasted cat food. — David Nicholls

and, before the storm came, silently whispered a prayer. — Adam Nicholls

And then some days you wake up and everything's perfect — David Nicholls

... she was discovering once again that reading and writing were not the same - you couldn't just soak it up then squeeze it out again. — David Nicholls

It's rapidly becoming clear that the so-called best years of my life are never going to happen — David Nicholls

My 20s was a sea of worry. I worried about benefit forms, about being thrown out of my flat. I never went on holiday because I thought: 'What if an audition comes up?' I was a nervous wreck. — David Nicholls

Sylvie's sort of pregnant. Well not sort of. She is. Pregnant. Actually pregnant with a baby.'
'Oh Dexter! Do you know the father? I'm kidding! Congratulations, Dex. God, aren't you meant to space your bombshells out a bit. Not just drop them all at once?'
She held his face in both hands, looked at it.
'You're getting married?-'
'Yes'
-'And you're going to be a father?'
'I know! Fuck me a father!'
'Is that allowed? I mean will they let you?'
'Apparently'
'I think it's wonderful. Fucking hell, Dexter, I turn my back for one minute ... !'
She hugged him once again her arms high round his neck. She felt drunk, full of affection and a certain sadness too, as if something was coming to an end. She wanted to say something along these lines, but thought it best to do this through a joke.
'Of course you've destroyed any chance I had of future happiness, but I'm delighted for you, really. — David Nicholls

The tourist's paradox: how to find somewhere that's free of people exactly like us. — David Nicholls

At university, I used to write silly little sketches and monologues, but never fiction. — David Nicholls

Read a book at the right age and it will stay with you for life. — David Nicholls

Who me? God, no, I'm terrible ... " Then, just as an experiment, I say, "And, besides, I don't think I'm good-looking enough to be an actor."
Oh, that's not true! There are lots of actors who aren't good-looking ... — David Nicholls

He wanted to live life in such a way that if a photograph were taken at random, it would be a cool photograph. — David Nicholls

But Dexter blinked hard, shook his head then nudged her hand with his. 'So what I thought we'd do for the next couple of days is, you can show me the sights, and I'll just mope about and make stupid remarks.'
She smiled and nudged his hand back. 'It's hardly surprising what you've been through, are going through,' and she covered his hand with her own. — David Nicholls

Dexter had been led to believe, by TV, by films, that the only up-side of sickness was that it brought people closer, that there would be an opening-up, an effortless understanding between them. But they have always been close, always been open, and their habitual understanding has instead been replaced by bitterness, resentment, a rage on both their parts at what is happening. — David Nicholls

Next morning get up early and go to the Taj Mahal. Perhaps you've heard of it, big white building named after that Indian restaurant on the Lothian Road. — David Nicholls

To recall a name or incident felt almost wearyingly physical, like clearing out an attic. — David Nicholls

Recently he has noticed idiocy creeping up on him. His resolve to keep his head on straight, his feet on the ground, is failing and he has observed, quite objectively, that he is becoming more thoughtless, selfish, making more and more stupid remarks. He has tried to do something about this but it almost feels out of his control now, like pattern baldness. Why not just give in and be an idiot? Stop caring. — David Nicholls

Why can't you just love me? Why can't you just be in love with me? — David Nicholls

Live each day as if it's your last', that was the conventional advice, but really, who had the energy for that? What if it rained or you felt a bit glandy? It just wasn't practical. The trick of it, she told herself, is to be courageous and bold and make a difference. Not change the world exactly, just the bit around you. Go out there with your double-first, your passion and your new Smith Corona electric typewriter and work hard at ... something. Change lives through art maybe. Write beautifully. Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately and fully and well. Experience new things. Love and be loved if at all possible. — David Nicholls

There seemed no reason why she shouldn't try writing something in between, but she was discovering once again that reading and writing were not the same - you couldn't just soak it up and then squeeze it out again. — David Nicholls

You're gorgeous, you old hag, and if I could give you just one gift ever for the rest of your life it would be this. Confidence. It would be the gift of confidence. Either that or a scented candle — David Nicholls

Some guidelines for a successful 'Grand Tour' of Europe: 1. Energy! Never be 'too tired' or 'not in the mood'. 2. Avoid conflict with Albie. Accept light-hearted joshing and do not retaliate with malice or bitter recriminations. Good humour at all times. 3. It is not necessary to be seen to be right about everything, even when that is the case. 4. Be open-minded and willing to try new things. For example, unusual foods from unhygienic kitchens, experimental art, unusual points of view, etc. 5. Be fun. Enjoy light-hearted banter with C and A. 6. Try to relax. Don't dwell on the future for — David Nicholls

Oh you know me. I have no emotions. I'm a robot. Or a nun. A robot nun. — David Nicholls

They say the personal is political and it's certainly fair to say that, like her politics, Rebecca Epstein's kissing is radical, forthright and uncompromising. — David Nicholls