The Herd Quotes
"Their friendship made them seem untouchable somehow. I’ve never had that with anyone."
"Is she, like me, desperate to see and truly be seen by another woman?"
"Maybe women like us are the lucky ones after all, maybe our distance from each other keeps us safe."
"So this is how it feels to be Elizabeth."
"The sense of something lacking – the hook, pulling – that behind all the gossip, all the bullshit chat about school plays and football teams, we are starving for each other, for connection."
"I’m not normally one for swearing, but what a fucked-up logic."
"She understands it – sometimes Elizabeth pisses her off too – but she still bristles slightly at Row’s tone."
"In the beginning, Bry’s life had been absorbed by her relationship with Ash – their move out of London, visits from Theo and Bran, Alba, the house renovations."
"The transformation she imagined hadn’t happened, not yet at least."
"We’re so excited to have you over for the first day of the summer holiday and to celebrate Clemmie’s seventh birthday."
"Each one of Jack’s rhythmic snores feels to Elizabeth like a little brag about how pleasurable his sleep is, how fucking free his mind is."
"Her heart curls tighter around itself, like a fist."
"Elizabeth’s life feels like an endless to-do list."
"The truth is that from the second he leaves the house he craves being home again."
"She doesn’t want to worry about Bry and … shit, he splashes the rim of the toilet as he pees."
"What is said on a jog stays on the jog."
"Anything can be opened up here on this path, together."
"It feels quite wonderful to love her but not want her."
"Elizabeth was funny, clever, and she loved the handful of people she kept close with an unparalleled ferocity."
"Sometimes it’s like she actually wants to piss people off."
"That’s the problem with these young people – they don’t remember."
"Anyone who doesn’t vaccinate their kids is a bloody idiot in my book; they clearly don’t care about their own children."
"I can’t keep lying to our friends, Bry, I really can’t."
"I’m so relieved you’re doing the right thing, Bry. I’m just so relieved."
"Study after study has said the same – there is no link between vaccines and autism."
"She knows what happened to my brother, knows he will never be able to speak because of vaccines."
"Where there is risk there must be choice."
"They cause an abnormal immune response in some people – like your brother and highly likely Alba and little Coco – that results in neurologic dysfunction."
"My child, my choice, my child, my choice!"
"I feel awful after – it was the first time Alba heard a swear word."
"I can’t imagine a life without children. I’ve just made different and – I’d argue – better life choices."
"The grief would suffocate him, like sand poured down his throat and into his lungs."
"You know there are things you can still do, to counteract the damage from the mercury, aluminium and all the other crap they injected into your kids’ blood."
"Five pharmaceutical companies literally run the world."
"You must be relieved Alba is recovered."
"I know you're hurting, mate, I can't imagine how much, and I'm so, so sorry this has happened."
"The doctors are at their limit tending to the people who already have the virus, so Public Health England came up with this idea. Clever, isn't it?"
"My teenagers laugh at me for coming here, sitting in the public gallery at the courthouse on my day off, but when I tell them how many millions of lives have been saved because of vaccines, how important they are, they roll their eyes."
"It’s people like you, Ash, who don’t stop to challenge the status quo – you just swallow whatever you’re told to swallow because you want an easy life."
"We just don’t fucking know, do we? None of us fucking know what to do."
"This is her first time out … yes, maybe it’s a bit too much to ask."
"I’ve been feeling so fucking anxious about it."
"It’s OK, Row. Seriously. You’re right. Everything has changed."
"My ex-wife will tell you that the reason I break great stories before any other reporter is because I don’t have one moral bone in my body."
"Don’t make me feel guilty, Jack, please. I can’t handle it if you make me feel guilty."
"I’m here, my love, I’m here, my Clemmie, Mummy’s here."
"I wasn’t asking you, Ash. I was asking Clemmie’s godmother."
"I don’t believe you, Bry, I don’t believe that you don’t care."
"We know, there are no winners here – we only want to raise awareness about the importance of vaccinating, to try and stop other little ones from going through everything Clemmie’s gone through."
"You think I’m a shit person, don’t you? You think I deserve this."
"I’m going to have to do something, Jack. I want the world to know what they’ve done, and I want to stop it happening again."
"I wasn’t there. But I’ve lived every day of my life as though I was."
"Waiting to walk up to the witness box is still interminable."
"No one likes a desperate-looking scientist."
"One bad study can still do so much damage more than two decades later."
"Autism is a naturally occurring form of neurodiversity."
"Vaccines are proven to be safer than the illnesses they protect against."
"Infectious disease is only a few hours’ flight away."
"Once a disease is wiped out in every country in the world, vaccination is no longer necessary."
"Her life and her future have been altered beyond all comprehension."
"This case poses the question – if a parent knows the dangers of a contagious disease but still chooses to put other, vulnerable children at risk, should the parents be exempt from the consequences of that choice?"
"Parenting is hard and parents are liable to make decisions they may later come to regret."
"Life is inherently risky. There is risk in absolutely everything we do."
"Being ignorant and scared translated into reckless negligent behavior."
"I was scared, I was scared, and so I made a special exemption of my daughter."
"You cannot abandon your children, Elizabeth. They need you to show them that recovery is possible."
"It’s time to get up now, Elizabeth. It’s time to stand in the shower and be downstairs when they come home."
"We’ve become a juicy footnote in the history of the street and the town. So be it."
"I’ve done goodbye. Can we have pancakes now?"
"I believe it has already paved the way for a necessary [debate]."
"We followed your instruction in relation to the press."
"Let’s go for drinks in 2020 to finally celebrate such a great outcome."
"She was terrified for her daughter’s wellbeing."
"It was a sweet idea, but Elizabeth doesn’t need mantras."