Kelman Quotes

#1. I'm a postmodern commentator, and so, in a cheeky parallel to James Joyce or James Kelman, I get to places, verbally, that are a little unusual - when I talk about Jocky Wilson and end up sounding like a Jackson Pollock of the commentary box.

Sid Waddell

#2. I wanted to tell her I loved her but it wouldn't come out. It felt too big. Even the word. It felt too big and stupid to say it now. I had to keep it in my belly for later. I had to swallow it back down.

Stephen Kelman

#3. And you'd be left there like a fucking dumpling. You'd be standing there. A fucking dumpling man I'm telling ye.

James Kelman

#4. Vilis still doesn't pass to me but I don't care. Where he comes from (Latvia) they burn black people into tar and make roads out of them.

Stephen Kelman

#5. When there's a star on a flag it stands for freedom. The star points in all directions, it means you can go anywhere you want. That's why I love stars, because they stand for freedom.

Stephen Kelman

#6. No point worrying about a storm until we smell rain

Suzanne Kelman

#7. Folk take a battering but, they do; they get born and they get brought up and they get fuckt. That's the story; the cot to the fucking funeral pyre.

James Kelman

#8. I used to think there was something up with any female that liked me, I mean, if she didni get bored with my company, there had to be something up with her. Otherwise how come she wasni with somebody else? If she was normal she would be. Ergo she had to have a personality problem.

James Kelman

#9. Behind the lens, I found refuge and freedom, distance and connection, an intoxicating way to tame the huge, chaotic world.

Judith Kelman

#10. In prose fiction the freedom to work honestly exists, although you may have to fight for it. In those other areas of literature, I mean drama, there is only silence. That sort of aesthetic integrity does not exist in radio and television, and seldom on film.

James Kelman

#11. It's like the Boss always says: they're just meat wrapped around a blazing star. We don't mourn the wrapping once it's discarded, we celebrate the freeing of the star.

Stephen Kelman

#12. Both the two of us knew it. We watched the lie go up big and slow between us, then it burst like a spit bubble. They always burst before too long.

Stephen Kelman

#13. Jorge Luis Borges: "I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library." "The

Suzanne Kelman

#14. A mother never fully delivers.

Judith Kelman

#15. It's because they don't understand good sex has nothing to do with equality.

Nic Kelman

#16. He had long since stopped trying to figure out our daughter, who as an adult had quietly removed his superhero cape and in return offered him a cape of indifference.

Suzanne Kelman

#17. I suppose a child's first obligation is to become a stranger to his parents.

Judith Kelman

#18. An unforgettable tale of love, lust, faith, betrayal, and redemption. A powerful, mesmerizing suspense novel-a tour de force!

Judith Kelman

#19. It made me wonder if there is much difference in our hearts between love and grief. they both have a yearning that seems unable to be satisfied.

Suzanne Kelman

#20. That's when Poppy kissed me. I didn't have time to get ready. She just kissed me there and then, right on the lips. It felt lovely. I wasn't even scared this time. It was warm and not too wet. I didn't get any tongue. Her breath smelled like Orange Tic Tacs.

Stephen Kelman

#21. You all want to be the sea. But you're not the sea, you're just a raindrop.

Stephen Kelman

#22. I pretended like all the oranges rolling everywhere were her happy memories and they were looking for a new person to stick to so they didn't get wasted.

Stephen Kelman

#23. The beauty of prose fiction that I see is simply that in order to create something you need only pay attention to personal exigency.

James Kelman

#24. In the earning of things you have lost the ability to enjoy them.

Nic Kelman

#25. A name is so Jesus will find you. Otherwise Jesus won't know who he's looking for and you'd just float in space forever. That would be hutious. What if you fell into the sun, you'd get burned up like human toast!

Stephen Kelman

#26. Her laughing was like a wave in the sea, when it landed on you it made you laugh as well.

Stephen Kelman

#27. He squinted and said, "Hmmm," which translated from "male" means, "I don't actually agree with that idea, but I don't have a comeback line to common sense.

Suzanne Kelman

#28. That undamaged part of her was so small, it was only good for one night.

Nic Kelman

#29. It was so quiet in that room I could practically hear the plants growing.

Suzanne Kelman

#30. Funny how ye tell people a story to make a point and ye fail, ye fail, a total disaster. Not only do ye no make yer point it winds up the exact fucking opposite man, the exact fucking opposite. That isnay a misunderstanding it's a total
whatever.

James Kelman

#31. My sister and I may have been crafted of the same genetic clay, baked in the same uterine kiln, but we were disparate species, doomed never to love each other except blindly.

Judith Kelman

#32. Writing is the perfect balance between self-confidence and self-doubt, with a bit of self-delusion thrown in.

Judith Kelman

#33. Whoever invented men had definitely not ironed out all the kinks.

Judith Kelman

#34. Creativity is not passive, I don't see the creation of art as passive.

James Kelman

#35. when they become informed, they become tired like you, jaded.

Nic Kelman

#36. My culture and my language have the right to exist, and no one has the authority to dismiss that.

James Kelman

#37. Waiting rooms. Ye go into this room where ye wait. Hoping's the same. One of these days the cunts'll build entire fucking buildings just for that. Official hoping rooms, where ye just go in and hope for whatever the fuck ye feel like hoping for.

James Kelman

#38. Theoretical webs, dirty webs, fusty webs, old and shrivelling away into nothingness, a fine dust.Who needs that kind of stuff. Far far better getting out into the open air and doing it, actually doing it, something solid and concrete and unconceptualisable.

James Kelman

#39. you just wanted her to say, "I know what that's like." But of course, she can't say that, will never say that. And if she ever could then you could no longer be with her. Then you would both be tired. Then she would be a better friend, but a worse lover.

Nic Kelman

#40. Mr. Frimpong is the oldest person from church. That's when I knew why he sings louder than anybody else: it's because he's been waiting the longest for God to answer. He thinks God has forgotten him. I only knew it then. Then I loved him but it was too late to go back.

Stephen Kelman

#41. My room is now my headquarters. Nobody's allowed in without the password and I haven't even told anybody what the password is (it's pigeon, after my pigeon. Nobody else can find out if you only think it).

Stephen Kelman

#42. It's a dirty little secret that most New Yorkers are pleasant, thoughtful, patient, and polite. The Chamber of Commerce must work overtime to maintain the surly, off-putting image that is widely believed to define the city. In truth, niceness is nearly epidemic in this town.

Judith Kelman

#43. Hair by Toni & Guy. Personality by Ronald McDonald

Stephen Kelman

#44. Say it with me: I am a drop in the ocean. I am neighbour, nation, north and nowhere. I am one among many and we all fall together.

Stephen Kelman

#45. You still said things like that then, still bothered trying to be clever.

Nic Kelman