Black Rabbit Hall Quotes
"There is something exhilarating about driving through this wild weather with the man she is to marry, just the two of them cocooned in their wheezing little red Fiat."
"She loved being engaged, that state of blissful suspension: they belonged to each other but they still woke up every morning and chose to be together."
"A black date is circled on everyone’s calendar, flipping ever closer."
"The family joke is that a Black Rabbit hour lasts twice as long as a London one, but you don’t get a quarter of the things done."
"It’s like the twentieth century never started!"
"The young must never worry about their parents, you know? Worrying is a mother’s job."
"Life! You’ll learn far more at Black Rabbit Hall than in a stuffy old classroom."
"When the sun sets – we’re facing west – it silhouettes them. The rabbits look... like shadow puppets, I always think."
"I don’t believe she’s dead at all. And if I don’t believe it she won’t be."
"I can feel his heart through the fabric of his rugby shirt."
"‘Momma’s dead,’ I say, not sure Peggy has cottoned on."
"I cannot touch my hot chocolate. To drink hot chocolate while Momma lies still upstairs is impossible."
"I think about him sobbing last night, every night since Momma died. I don’t think there can be a worse sound in the world than your father crying."
"‘That’s my girl,’ says Bay. She has a small chunk of lipstick on her front tooth that looks like pale pink icing."
"‘Please stand,’ says the vicar. There is a rustle."
"‘I’ll take you to Coney Island, up the Empire State,’ she whispers."
"You’re a quiet girl with a big heart, Amber. You need to make it a strong heart too."
"‘It’s time, my darling,’ Daddy says, hand on my back."
"‘Nancy would be enormously touched to see our tiny church so crowded,’ Daddy says at last, sounding less sure of himself."
"‘I’ll plait your hair, Kits,’ I say, reaching out to her. ‘Come here.’"
"It’s the day of the funeral. Time has gone funny."
"What is it about shoes? More than a dress, a coat or anything else, a shoe somehow moulds itself to its wearer."
"Men think with the brain’s grey matter, which is full of active neurons. Women ponder the world with their brain’s white matter, which consists of connections between the neurons."
"It’s for this reason that I don’t buy vintage shoes: they are never truly yours."
"The ghouls have long gone now. But the attic still feels as if it might hide other things, family secrets buried in the damp, mildewed boxes."
"Permanent state of existential crisis, I think."
"I didn’t know what I wanted after dropping out of uni."
"A twenty-nine-year-old secretary called Bethany is involved."
"I have no time to waste on those who are not."
"I was looking for Black Rabbit Hall," says Lorna, the words forming as she thinks them.
"Pleasure is a by-product, not a bloody right."
"Strength of character is forged through hardship, not fun."
"It’s not odd! Or random or coincidental, Amber. That’s the flipping point!"
"I’m not looking for that woman. I don’t want to find her."
"You can’t keep running, Lorna, circling your past rather than facing it head on."
"The whole thing would be closed down like some … illegal rave or something."
"I like Lucian," says Barney, coming to Kitty’s aid.
"I can't go back and undo my love for Lucian any more than I can go back through time and stop Momma falling off her horse."
"If Toby understands, he'll forgive. I’m almost sure of it."
"Christmas: how will we ever get that far? Even tomorrow feels terrifyingly uncharted now."
"I don’t know how long I stare at that chair, numb with pins and needles, waiting for Momma to reappear."
"You should have thought of that before you screwed your brother."
"Life sets hard as concrete, Lorna. It sets terribly quickly."
"You shouldn’t be here! How could you cheat Toby like that?"
"The past is soon beaten back by the giddy vitality of the present."
"I must find Barney. That is all that matters for now."
"I was too terrified to call her anything but ‘Baby’ in case this made me love her too much."
"The next morning, we walk across the cliffs to the beach and start to dig another one, the same but bigger."
"I decide wearily, intercept him the moment he walks into the hall."
"The next moment the cough stops and his body sags in our arms."