Ian Cross

“It's all because of me isn't it? It's all my fault?”

“Standing there. watching her go, I felt lonelier than I have ever been in my life.”

“And then, believe it or not, it came to me for the first time that all the difference was caused by me.”

“Molly wasn't hope then, of course, and i can't help hating her for not being there.”

“Somehow this is what I wanted to happen. I was holding my ground under attack from my enemies, lashing out at them until they killed me, not giving a damn.”

“I stared so long that I got to seeing them as being dark, ugly sins in my body, smelling and dirty, but my touch face showed that I didn't give a damn. I was the toughest person in the whole world. And then inside the outline of my body a devil's face slowly took shape. It came to my chest, a dark, ugly thing with big lips that looked hot around yellow pointed teeth, eyeing me in a friednly way, as though it had been feeding on what was inside me and was trying to show how pleased it was.”

“I was frightened again, knowing thatmy having seen God that morning was only my stupid imagination. Everything was going to be as bad as it had ever been.”

“What exactly he would say, I couldn't imagine, but I felt sure that as soon as I had actually got everything off my chest, I wouldn't have to worry any more.”

“I looked across to his picture on the wall, the one that showed him with a pained look on this face, with a bleeding heart painted on his chest. I knew exactly how he felt.”

“I looked back towards them, to see if they were watching me, and saw her pulling her arm from his grip. Her eyes were closed and her hair was all over the places and her face was screwed up.”

“One of the reasons dad was so pleased was because it did something to her.”

“But I was a fool, the biggest, damnedest, stupidest fool in thee whole world.”

“I felt almost sick with wanting to tell her how I felt, but I couldn't think of words to suit my feelings.”

“I made up my mind to tell Joe about what was going on at home after the funny business about Molly's letter. As I went to sleep I imagined myself telling Joe even about the the funny marble feeling that came over me from time to time. Then I remembered a lot of the whopping lies I had told Joe about my mother and father.”

“I never told anybody what was going on. Not a soul.”

“I lay in my bed for I don't know how long doing my best to work things out, and my best certainly wasn't good enough.”

“She reminded me of a picture in a history book of the executioner who killed on of the kings.”

“Why isn't everybody the way they were at first? I wonder.”

“Yet I didn't much want to go home.”

“It was great to float on your back in a calm sea and have somebody steer you.”

“Do you like Mother and Father?" "they're both all right""they're not Jimmy, and you shouldn't say so. I hate them, and you should hate them.""all right" I said, "I hate them.”

“I jerked the blankets right back off her, and there she was with her nightdress up around her neck. It was a shock to me that, her starting to look like a woman."[Jimmy about Molly]”

“If she had only known, things might have been different between us, but I could never talk to her about it"[Jimmy about Molly]”

“ I never could talk to my sister Molly, because she was loopy”

“I can't, I can't, I can't help hearing, I can't help seeing. I can't help it unless I run away.”

“If you never bothered to to look or see anything much you wouldn't be worrying'"I'd have to be very dumb to be like that""Then be dumb, see nothing, hear nothing”

“They go on like that and I can't understand, really I can't, what it's all about, and yet I feel terrible.”

“He was blaming her for being sick, and she kept repeating, 'I'm forty, do you hear? I'm forty and I've been through enough. I'm forty, it was too much.”

“Come on Pop' I said as best I could 'don't go back now'I felt rotten, watching him go back like that.”

“Like that time I came home and Mum was sick, not letting me upstairs. Later on I heard Dad actually blaming her for being sick. That must have been the first time I felt queer.”

“There is no hiding the fact that in some ways I am dissatisfied with God.”

“I've got a lot of ideas about God. I pray about as much as anybody, even though i am tough , yet I'm not too sure I liked God. It seems to me that is he is what they say he is, he has a very funny way of showing it.”

“[Mr. Sullivan to Mrs Sullivan]"I'm a very popular man, plenty of friends, and I can move in any circle and I'm always a perfect gentleman. I'd have plenty of friends if it wasn't for you. And you talk about being humiliated by me. People think you are queer, that's what people think about you”

“[in reference to Mothers refusal to go to a party] "I'm past being humiliated by you in public, having to watch your drunken foolishness and everybody looking on”

“the air just went cold, as it did those times before, and started sticking to my skin, on my arms and legs and face, everywhere. I had seen a marble statue in a museum, a well built man doubled over throwing something, and the feeling reminded me of him. It was as if I was starting to be made of marble.”

“That wallpaper. touching it like that, was one of my protection tricks”