Best Of Audrey Magee's 'The Colony'

Here is a selection of memorable quotes from The Colony by Audrey Magee.

I enjoy that. That connection with the past. Being part of something older than myself. It makes me feel less alone, JP, less frantic about what time I have left, because I am not leading, only following.

p. 117

You see, there's a harshness to life here, JP, that not everyone can manage. There's a harshness everywhere, I know, city or country, but here it is more exposed, stripped bare by the weather and our isolation. That simplicity doesn't suit a lot of people. They say it bores them, but I have watched. It's not boredom, JP. It's fear. The barrenness and rawness frightens them. Sends them away to cloak themselves in timetables, bills, holidays and houses, in sofas, kitchen counters and curtains, a life of buying and owning to mask the bareness of existence. Hide its harshness. Make it more palatable. Tolerable. But I wonder if it does?

p. 118

But much of it is this hunt for affirmation in a world that affirms little, if anything at all. As though some title could confirm who you are. Some house or car could prove your worth. I suppose that it works for some. Men think it attracts women, I suppose, but what type of man is that? And what type of woman is that, JP? Be thankful to God for what you've got, I say, and stop all the time chasing after the next new shiny thing. Sure, that makes us no better than the magpie.

p. 119