Guess quote

Sue Townsend [1946-0] English

Rank: 103
Novelist, Writer

Susan Lillian "Sue" Townsend, FRSL was an English writer and humorist whose work encompasses novels, plays and works of journalism. She was best known for creating the character Adrian Mole.

Diet, Anniversary, Birthday, Car, Failure, Food, Independence, Teacher

Quote	Tags	Rank
I always have this image of a woman running across a desert carrying children, trying to find water and food, not knowing when they'll get that. And her feet are slashed up from the dry, hard earth... Even when I'm uncomfortable, sometimes in pain, or just cold... I think, 'Thank God for what I've got.'	Food	101
When I was a child, I dreaded blindness. We used to ask: 'Would we rather be blind or deaf?' I said I'd rather be blind, even though I was scared of it. I couldn't bear not being able to hear music or talk to people.		102
My dark secrets are life threatening. Pockets of unhappiness set in aspic that build and build. I have this primitive feeling that if something good happens, it is going to be followed by something bad. There is always a price to pay.		103
I am from the working class. I am now what I was then. No amount of balsamic vinegar and Prada handbags could make me forget what it was like to be poor.		104
I think we take it for granted that if you are with your husband after 30 years, then he is the love of your life.	Anniversary	105
I took my sight and mobility for granted.		106
Being poor with three small children is terrifying. You can't make any plans. You know you're not going on holiday, ever. There's no way you could ever afford driving lessons or a car. And the guilt I used to feel: they had holes in their shoes, and at one point, I had to send them to school wearing Wellingtons when the sun was shining.	Car	107
Live with all of your senses.		108
Yes, I hate it when people call me a 'national treasure'. It takes away your bite and makes you feel like a harmless old golden Labrador.		109
'The Gambler' by Dostoevsky. It was the first time I realised that it was possible to have good and evil in one person. It led me to read a lot of Russian literature.		110
The monarchy is finished. It was finished a while ago, but they're still making the corpses dance.		111
In the playground, I always made people laugh; I used to charge them three pence for an impression of a teacher. It kept me in toffees.	Teacher	112
Watching 'The Jeremy Kyle Show' is my guilty pleasure.		113
I married two weeks after my 18th birthday, far too young, and by the time I was 23 I was a single mother of three small children, Sean, Daniel and Victoria, living in a prefab house.	Birthday	114
I am surrounded by counselors. My sister is a counselor. My daughter is training to be a counselor. A lot of my friends are counselors.		115
I never imagined when I began writing in the early 1960s I'd become professional and my life would be transformed.		116
We had library books in our house, but not our own. So you had 14 days to read them. There would be eight books a fortnight in our house and I'd read as many of those as I could.		117
Yes - I am usually overweight. I have had to be interested in diet because of being diabetic for 30 years and having kidney failure.	Diet, Failure	118
In the early days, it was, you know, I used to weep while I was writing. I used to grab at any kind of anything, any hint, any tip of how to make it easy.		119
I used to think I had nice arms, but I don't even think that anymore.		120
I do think that books, good books, free you. They make you feel a citizen of the world and things like class, sex and age don't matter. They're the greatest leveler.		121
I don't like to be noticed. The older I've got, the more reclusive I've become. I've got late-onset shyness. People are lovely. When they see me in the street, they don't ask for anything from me. They just say: 'I thought it was you, and I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your books,' but I can't seem to cope with it anymore.		122
I have a slight addiction to Diet Coke, and, of course, I absolutely shouldn't touch it because it makes the kidneys work really hard.	Diet	123
The DSS offices are not given enough funding, their staff are poorly paid and are driven to distraction by the amount of work they have to do. There is frequent turnover of staff. Morale is extremely low. Working with desperate people all day is very dispiriting; their unhappiness rubs off on you.		124
Most social problems could be helped or prevented if people had more money and practical advice.		125
Every time I start a new piece of work, I spend a long while under the duvet thinking I can't do it.		126
I am the world's worst diabetic.		201
Sometimes I rant, in a comical way, about how the gods give with one hand and take with the other.		202
I'd love a day devoid of responsibilities. I've often thought about going to a hotel just to have a day away from everything.		203
I'm spectacularly disorganised. I wrote my latest book in seven different notebooks scattered throughout my house.		204
When all my kids were at home, I used to write from midnight onwards.		205
I prefer to keep my secrets to myself, to the grave... and beyond!		206
I take life very seriously. I can laugh at it, because what else can you do? But it's a hard daily battle.		207
I'm getting to the end of my magnifying glasses now. One eye's gone completely. The other is gradually dimming. Dimming - that sounds very dramatic, doesn't it? I'm so lucky. I can still make a living - and the same kind of living.		208
My second husband encouraged me to go to a writing group at our local theatre. It was my 'coming out of the closet' moment.		209
I usually listen to the same thing over and over again: Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major. And Leonard Cohen.		210
I always wanted to be Jo in 'Little Women.' She's a bit reckless and feckless, always getting into trouble like me. But I'm probably more like Madame Bovary.		211
I must have been a very strange child. I was very pretentious. Like Adrian Mole.		212
I am a very independent person, and I, you know, I maintain that independence, but, you know, certain things - I mean, it takes, you know, it's just much easier for other people if other people can help you every now and again.	Independence	213
I've always been fascinated by totalitarian regimes. I'm not an admirer of them.		214
Lack of confidence - every time I start a new piece of work, it seems I have to spend a long while under the duvet thinking I can't do it.		215
My cream and black Aga. It is the heart of the house, and people congregate around it.		216
I seem to be able to get depressed quite easily without any reason.		217
I became an insomniac, really, hardly slept at all, didn't even try to. And it's carried on. I hate to say I only need as much sleep as Mrs. Thatcher, but I can cope really well on five hours.		218
I hate it when people call me a 'national treasure.' It takes away your bite and makes you feel like a harmless old golden Labrador.		219
I always feel as if I'm a disappointment: that people want a grand dame in furs like Barbara Taylor Bradford.		220
I always write back to people who are kind enough to write to me. Actually, I don't write - I recline on my red velvet sofa with my feet on the coffee table and dictate the letters to my eldest son.		221
People down on their luck deserve the best: beautiful surroundings and well-paid professional staff to help them out of their difficulties. Why not train thousands more social workers and let them sit in on claimants' interviews?		222

The script ran 0.002 seconds.