A lot of people get so hung up on what they can't have that they don't think for a second about whether they really want it.
Lionel ShriverChildren live in the same world we do. To kid ourselves that we can shelter them from it isn't just naive it's a vanity.
Lionel ShriverYou can call it innocence, or you can call it gullibility, but Celia made the most common mistake of the good-hearted: she assumed that everyone else was just like her.
Lionel ShriverGiving anyone anything takes courage, since so many presents backfire. A gift conspicuously at odds with your tastes serves only to betray that the benefactor has no earthly clue who you are.
Lionel ShriverIt isn't very nice to admit, but domestic violence has its uses. So raw and unleashed, it tears away the veil of civilization that comes between us as much as it makes life possible. A poor substitute for the sort of passion we like to extol perhaps, but real love shares more in common with hatred and rage than it does with geniality or politeness.
Lionel Shriver