Quotes from The Dream House by Craig Higginson
Shorter quotes:
1. Backwards glances only crick the neck.
2. Looksmart is like a boy. In his heart. He will not be able to hear a thing like that.
3. Power lies with those who withhold their information from others.
4. You must find the truth for yourself.
5. He was everything Richard was not.
6. He is an intruder in his own land, condemned to arriving in places he’ll never quite belong.
7. By the time school was finished I don’t think I fitted anywhere.
8. She was slightly less than human.
9. You sent me to that school, gave me that blazer.
10. And every holiday I came home to sleep in my mud hut.
11. The dog does not understand how much the world has changed; it still believes that a man
like Bheki will always come second to a dog.
12. It may be his dreamhouse, this house transformed beyond recognition.
13. Half the size and all the colour washed out of him.
14. A toy monkey with a battery up its arse.
15. After all this time you want to be the mother, and me? I must still be something like your
child.
16. That relationship, it can have no place in the future of this country.
17. There are many houses we pass through during our lives.
18. They were people of their time.
, Longer quotes:
1. “The problem of what to do with the past would have to carry on in the future”
- Chapter Beauty (Page 22)
2. “Yet it is a thing he feels: he is an intruder in his own land, condemned to arriving at places
where he will never quite belong”
- Chapter Looksmart (Page 34)
3. “She is always looking for the joke, Patricia, the thing to laugh at, the thing to steer her gaze
away from the unbearable present”
- Chapter Looksmart (Page 49)
4. “He’s never understood the workings of the house. The fact is that it was never his house,
but hers, handed down from her father. While he was there on good behaviour. Which is
why he thinks he chose bad behaviour”
- Chapter Richard (Page 103)
5. “Yes, that was what he understood on that day: that for Patricia, Grace was in another
category: like that cry of her they heard, she was slightly less than human. And this small
fact, it was enough to change every other fact between himself and Patricia. It undid every
single one of Patricia’s acts of kindness, if acts of kindness they everywhere. And it was on
this small fact that he would build his hate”
- Chapter Looksmart (Page 111)
6. “He has never really left this place. Well, for a while he did everything he could to leave this
place, but it was always there to meet him – there where he least expected it. Then his
marriage happened and his children, and he tried to lead each member of his family back to
the garden to salvage the boy who was stuck there”
- Chapter Looksmart (Page 145)
7. “It may be his dream house – this house transformed almost beyond recognition – but it still
comes from her. Perhaps too much from her. Perhaps even today he’s too attached to his
pain – and all he’s managing to do is reproduce it, with slight variations, all across the valley”
- Chapter Patricia (Page 178)
8. “When I first went to school, my mother would look at me with strange eyes, With the same
eyes she used when she looked at you. And by the time school was finished, I don’t think I
fitted anywhere. Not with her and certainly not with you”
- Chapter Patricia (Page 180 and 181)
9. “This is a strange land we live in. After all this time, you still want to be the mother. And me, I
must still be something like your child. But that relationship – it can have no place in the
future of this country”
- Chapter Patricia (Page 183)
10. “Looksmart is like a boy. In his heart. He will not be able to hear a thing like that”
- Chapter Patricia (Page 235)
Shorter quotes:
1. Backwards glances only crick the neck.
2. Looksmart is like a boy. In his heart. He will not be able to hear a thing like that.
3. Power lies with those who withhold their information from others.
4. You must find the truth for yourself.
5. He was everything Richard was not.
6. He is an intruder in his own land, condemned to arriving in places he’ll never quite belong.
7. By the time school was finished I don’t think I fitted anywhere.
8. She was slightly less than human.
9. You sent me to that school, gave me that blazer.
10. And every holiday I came home to sleep in my mud hut.
11. The dog does not understand how much the world has changed; it still believes that a man
like Bheki will always come second to a dog.
12. It may be his dreamhouse, this house transformed beyond recognition.
13. Half the size and all the colour washed out of him.
14. A toy monkey with a battery up its arse.
15. After all this time you want to be the mother, and me? I must still be something like your
child.
16. That relationship, it can have no place in the future of this country.
17. There are many houses we pass through during our lives.
18. They were people of their time.
, Longer quotes:
1. “The problem of what to do with the past would have to carry on in the future”
- Chapter Beauty (Page 22)
2. “Yet it is a thing he feels: he is an intruder in his own land, condemned to arriving at places
where he will never quite belong”
- Chapter Looksmart (Page 34)
3. “She is always looking for the joke, Patricia, the thing to laugh at, the thing to steer her gaze
away from the unbearable present”
- Chapter Looksmart (Page 49)
4. “He’s never understood the workings of the house. The fact is that it was never his house,
but hers, handed down from her father. While he was there on good behaviour. Which is
why he thinks he chose bad behaviour”
- Chapter Richard (Page 103)
5. “Yes, that was what he understood on that day: that for Patricia, Grace was in another
category: like that cry of her they heard, she was slightly less than human. And this small
fact, it was enough to change every other fact between himself and Patricia. It undid every
single one of Patricia’s acts of kindness, if acts of kindness they everywhere. And it was on
this small fact that he would build his hate”
- Chapter Looksmart (Page 111)
6. “He has never really left this place. Well, for a while he did everything he could to leave this
place, but it was always there to meet him – there where he least expected it. Then his
marriage happened and his children, and he tried to lead each member of his family back to
the garden to salvage the boy who was stuck there”
- Chapter Looksmart (Page 145)
7. “It may be his dream house – this house transformed almost beyond recognition – but it still
comes from her. Perhaps too much from her. Perhaps even today he’s too attached to his
pain – and all he’s managing to do is reproduce it, with slight variations, all across the valley”
- Chapter Patricia (Page 178)
8. “When I first went to school, my mother would look at me with strange eyes, With the same
eyes she used when she looked at you. And by the time school was finished, I don’t think I
fitted anywhere. Not with her and certainly not with you”
- Chapter Patricia (Page 180 and 181)
9. “This is a strange land we live in. After all this time, you still want to be the mother. And me, I
must still be something like your child. But that relationship – it can have no place in the
future of this country”
- Chapter Patricia (Page 183)
10. “Looksmart is like a boy. In his heart. He will not be able to hear a thing like that”
- Chapter Patricia (Page 235)
