Midwinter Break: A Novel

What was love but a lifetime of conversations. And silences. Knowing when to be silent. Above all, knowing when to laugh

These things that are on the back burner of your life, nobody sees them – when you pray or go to Mass, you take them out and give them a polish

Drink made everything easier – easier to feel, easier to find words

He was a great teacher and, as he said himself, he liked to give students enough self-confidence to create, yet instil in them enough knowledge to self-doubt.

‘In every relationship,’ said Stella, ‘there’s a flower and a gardener. One who does the work and one who displays.’

Anyway, teaching’s an anagram of cheating.’

Getting drunk was a form of temporary suicide. But the good thing was you got a chance to begin all over again the next day.

I like the about-to-fall-down nature of the houses. The way they lean against each other – like a lot of drunks.

‘Why do they do that?’

‘What?’

‘The simultaneous thing. One goes, they all go.’

‘They must be Catholics.’

He was almost swooning with pleasure as he forked the bacon and eggs into his mouth. His own little affair.