Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine Quotes
"People phone the office to discuss credit lines, send me emails about contracts and estimates. The employees I share an office with would notice if I didn’t turn up."
"It often feels as if I’m not here, that I’m a figment of my own imagination."
"I’m a finance clerk. I could be issuing invoices for anything, really: armaments, Rohypnol, coconuts."
"In terms of looks, he was a ten and I am … I don’t know what I am."
"I had a degree in Classics and no work experience to speak of, and I turned up for the interview with a black eye, a couple of missing teeth and a broken arm."
"I make supper and eat it while I listen to The Archers. I usually have pasta with pesto and salad – one pan and one plate."
"I don’t talk to anyone – by the time I’ve bought my Meal Deal, read the paper and finished both crosswords, the hour is almost up."
"After I’ve washed up, I read a book, or sometimes I watch television if there’s a programme the Telegraph has recommended that day."
"I don’t need anyone else – there’s no big hole in my life, no missing part of my own particular puzzle."
"He’d surprise me by learning the … bassoon. Yes, he’d play the melody on the bassoon for me."
"Did people actually drink sanitizing hand gel? I supposed they must – hence the sign."
"My hands were stinging slightly from the gel, which had seeped into the cracks in my skin."
"I didn’t burn, Mummy, I thought. I walked through the fire and I lived."
"There’s no way I’m paying good money just to lie here and watch all that shite!"
"The music had started up once more, but I did not wish to disturb him."
"It was one of those beautiful midsummer evenings – eight o’clock and still full of heat and soft light."
"His eyes were damp, like periwinkles in seawater."
"Eleanor the Grinch, that’s what we ought to call you."
"She’d merely been a pretext, a ruse of sorts to provide her with the opportunity to attempt to sell us sex toys."
"You know what happens to liars, don’t you, Eleanor? You remember?"
"Life is all about taking decisive action, darling. Whatever you want to do, do it – whatever you want to take, grab it. Whatever you want to bring to an end, END IT. And live with the consequences."
"Strength conquers weakness – that’s a simple fact of life, isn’t it?"
"You can’t protect other people, however hard you try. You try, and you fail, and your world collapses around you, burns down to ashes."
"Sometimes, when night comes, I lie there in the darkness and I can’t prevent myself remembering; fear, and pressure, but mostly fear."
"It’s good to keep an open mind, although I’m well aware that hoops and letters all taste the same. I’m not stupid."
"The past isn’t over. The past is a living thing."
"I find geraniums somewhat unsettling; that rich, sticky scent when you brush against them, a brackish, vegetable smell that’s the opposite of floral."
"You’re bright, you’re conscientious, you’re … very well organized."
"It’s only a moment, but it leaves a warm imprint, almost as though it might be visible. A human hand was exactly the right weight, exactly the right temperature for touching another person."
"I was glad to sit down, after all the jigging and queuing."
"It’s just … I really do think I’ve got everything under control here."
"I felt a flash of happiness, like a match being struck."
"It was impossible not to notice that she had only one front tooth."
"I had almost become inured to his illiterate way of communicating."
"I do not light up a room when I walk into it."
"People don’t like these facts, but I can’t help that."
"Loneliness is the new cancer – a shameful, embarrassing thing."
"I heard banging – bang bang bang – and a man shouting my name."
"If this was the location of the afterlife, I’d be lodging an appeal immediately."
"Just how desperately, on how many levels, does a person have to wish to die before it’s actually allowed to happen?"
"You never were very adventurous. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it, though."
"I thought about it. My insides felt wrong, very wrong."
"I don’t think anyone on earth would understand what it feels like to be me."
"I’m not sure I’m quite following you, Maria."
"I’m responsible. I chose to put myself in a situation where I’m responsible."
"I felt … safe. And I knew Marianne was safe too."
"You’re doing it already, Eleanor. You’re braver and stronger than you give yourself credit for."
"The walk home wasn’t long. It was never long enough."
"It’s like I told you: if something needs to change, change it!"
"Marianne loved dogs. Every time we saw one, she’d point and laugh, then try to hug it."
"It’s more than that though, isn’t it? All those lost years, wasted years."