Top 160 Douglas Stuart Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Mungo pulled his finger off the rusted nail. “I’m glad you are fixed, James. You’ve worked hard to get better. You deserve it.” “I’m not fixed, Mungo. Ah’m just a liar.”

— Douglas Stuart

52. “The temptation was sweet; the possibilities hung in the air like a thousand doors.”

— Douglas Stuart

53. “Christ’s sake, Mungo. You must be steamin’. Have you forgotten what it’s like out there? If they knew, they would stab us! Rip us from balls to chin just for something to talk about down the pub.”

— Douglas Stuart

54. “There was a gentleness to his being that put girls at ease; they wanted to make a pet of him. But that sweetness unsettled other boys.”

— Douglas Stuart

55. “They were happy with her alone, with her sobriety and the peace it brought.”

— Douglas Stuart

56. “Leek frowned at Shuggie, like he was angry at his hope, disappointed that Shuggie was stupid enough to still believe.”

— Douglas Stuart

57. “Whole housing estates of young men who were promised the working trades of their fathers had no future now. Men were losing their very masculinity.”

— Douglas Stuart

58. “Their donkey jackets were clean and their boots were still shiny as they jerked along the road. Shuggie stepped back as they passed, their heads lowered like those of tired black mules. Without a word, each man collected a handful of thin children, who followed obediently, like reverential shadows.”

— Douglas Stuart

59. “The teacher gave up yelling encouragement and tried insults instead. He was an old man but a fit, flinty one, a Scottish shinty champion in his day. When they banned the cane a few years before he thought he might give up teaching altogether. In the end it made little difference; after all the years of peering into the dark corners of little boys’ souls, he knew where real pain and motivation lay.”

— Douglas Stuart

60. “She’d looked as happy as he could ever remember, and he was surprised how this hurt. It was all for the red-headed man. He had done what Shuggie had been unable to do.”

— Douglas Stuart

61. “I had to see if you would actually come.” Agnes took hold of the neck of his jumper then. Shug picked up his money belt and kissed her with a forceful tongue. He had to squeeze all the small bones in her hands to get her to release him. She had loved him, and he had needed to break her completely to leave her for good. Agnes Bain was too rare a thing to let someone else love. It wouldn’t do to leave pieces of her for another man to collect and repair later.”

— Douglas Stuart

62. “He felt something was wrong. Something inside him felt put together incorrectly. It was like they could all see it, but he was the only one who could not say what it was. It was just different, and so it was just wrong.”

— Douglas Stuart

63. “He knew now that he couldn’t keep his promise. He had lied to Agnes as she had lied to him about stopping the drink. She would never be able to get sober, and he, sat in the cold with a lovely girl, knew he would never feel quite like a normal boy.”

— Douglas Stuart

64. “She thought about tilting further then, dared herself to do it. How easy it would be to kid herself that she was flying, until it became only falling and she broke herself on the concrete below.”

— Douglas Stuart

65. “Her lips were almost always pursed, and her raisin-coloured eyes were constantly scanning the busy crowd for trouble. There was a calcified hardness to her now that she wore like armour and too often forgot to take off.”

— Douglas Stuart

66. “It was a nothing that felt like an everything.”

— Douglas Stuart

67. “Once upon a time the wind whipping off the sea had turned the front of her thighs blue with the cold, but Agnes couldn’t feel it because she had been happy.”

— Douglas Stuart

68. “The ball sailed over them, and the other boys tore up the field like Shetland ponies, cantering as one and giving the impression they were scared to be separated. The teacher stopped at a trot. “Oi, you two ladies, when you are done having tea, how about you play some bloody fitba,” he barked.”

— Douglas Stuart

69. “She’s no gonnae get any better, son. Come away from there.” Shuggie paused for a second, he looked over his narrow shoulder bone and shrugged. “But she might.”

— Douglas Stuart

70. “It was good to put your weight on someone else, even if it was just for a short while.”

— Douglas Stuart

71. “Shug would have liked to leave a sovereign print on his face.”

— Douglas Stuart

72. “Mungo lunged at him then and cracked his fist off his chest. He dared him to strike back. Violence always preceded affection; Mungo didn’t know any other way. Mo-Maw would crack her Scholl sandal off his back, purpling bruises curdling his cream skin, then she would realize she had gone too far and pull him into the softness of her breast. Jodie would scold and demean his poorly wired brain and then, feeling guilty, make a heaped bowl of warm Weetabix and white sugar.”

— Douglas Stuart

73. “Shug smiled. She was only twenty-four and already his doormat. “I didnae think you were coming,” she said, climbing into the back of the taxi. “What did you call me out here fur?” “I missed ye, that’s all,” she said. “I haven’t seen ye in weeks.” She rolled her thick legs open and shut coquettishly. “You’ve no gone off o’ me, have ye?” She grinned.”

— Douglas Stuart

74. “He was Mo-Maw’s youngest son, but he was also her confidant, her lady’s maid, and errand boy. He was her one flattering mirror, and her teenage diary, her electric blanket, her doormat. He was her best pal, the dog she hardly walked, and her greatest romance. He was her cheer on a dreich morning, the only laughter in her audience.”

— Douglas Stuart

75. “Without questioning it, Mungo sat up in the bed and oriented himself to lie beside James. He pulled the boy on to his chest and felt the crumpled wetness of his face. He held him, just like Jodie would hold him, and let him remember his mother. It was good to put your weight on someone else, even if it was just for a short while.”

— Douglas Stuart

76. “Now, the years of sedentary taxi driving had taken what was already average and also made it round.”

— Douglas Stuart

77. “Spell it,” said Jodie quickly. “Spell whut?” “Genetics.”

— Douglas Stuart

78. “The morning light was the colour of too-milky tea. It snuck into the bedsit like a sly ghost, crossing the carpet and inching slowly up his bare legs.”

— Douglas Stuart

79. “I’ve never liked those AA places. They attract the lowest kind of people. God gave you a will. You should use it to save yourself.”

— Douglas Stuart

80. “I learnt how to start a fire. I learnt how to put bait on a hook.” “See!” Mo-Maw sounded like she was relieved. “That’s what ah telt our Jodie. That’s what ah wanted you to do this for. Masculine pursuits. It’ll make a man out of ye.”

— Douglas Stuart

81. “It looked like the lager beauties sometimes did, a careless printer and a misaligned screen, and suddenly the woman was no longer whole, just a mess of different layers.”

— Douglas Stuart

82. “After that Shuggie tried to keep his eyes moving. He tried to surreptitiously soak in all the details of his father. He knew almost nothing about him, and while the others ate, he stole sideways glances at the man and wondered why he tolerated these other children but had left him.”

— Douglas Stuart

83. “I do fight for her!” he said. “Mostly with herself, but it’s still a fight.”

— Douglas Stuart

84. “Shuggie put the phone back on the cradle and stood in the hallway, waiting for her to say something, anything. Agnes could have said anything then, and he would have taken it and he would have forgiven her.”

— Douglas Stuart

85. “Jodie had the peculiar courage of a girl who never expected to be hit by a man – which was strange, because all three siblings had seen their mother suffer at the hands of her boyfriends. There was no man that Jodie would not answer back, and although Mungo admired that about his sister, he thought she put too much faith in the decency of men. This belief, this bravery, gave her a gallus tongue.”

— Douglas Stuart

86. “Her brother was her mother’s minor moon, her warmest sun, and at the exact same time, a tiny satellite that she had forgotten about. He would orbit her for an eternity, even as she, and then he, broke into bits.”

— Douglas Stuart

87. “He had long perfected the art of staring through people, leaving conversations to follow his daydreams through the back of their heads and out any open window.”

— Douglas Stuart

88. “At the front door she pushed a jam piece and a peeled carrot into his hand and told him to go and play and not to come back till it was dark. She pointed out into the distance and waved her hand wide across the scheme, meaning he could go anywhere he pleased for all she cared.”

— Douglas Stuart

89. “It would be drunk open mouths, hot red tongues, and heavy clumsy flesh. Pure Friday-night happiness.”

— Douglas Stuart

90. “My mammy had a good year once. It was lovely.”

— Douglas Stuart

91. “Auntie Jinty was the worst of them. She would pester Shuggie for a kiss as he came in the door from school. The boy could feel her warm tongue against his cheek like a piece of fatty stewed beef.”

— Douglas Stuart

92. “Shuggie sat there listening to them amuse themselves. He took the red football book and dropped it into the dark drawer of this strange school desk. He was glad, at least, to be done with that. It was clear now: nobody would get to be made brand new.”

— Douglas Stuart

93. “Soon the greenish, brownish air filled with a dark tangy smell, metallic and sharp, like licking the end of a spent battery.”

— Douglas Stuart

94. “The man moved with an odd jangling gait, like he was made up of a pile of plates that threatened to teeter over.”

— Douglas Stuart

95. “It was hard at first to start moving again, to feel the music, to go to that other place in your head where you keep your confidence. It didn’t go together, the shuffling feet and the jangly limbs, but like a slow train it caught speed and soon he was flying again. He tried to tone down the big showy moves, the shaking hips and the big sweeping arms. But it was in him, and as it poured out, he found he was helpless to stop it.”

— Douglas Stuart

96. “Mungo tilted his head back. He hadn’t noticed, but the sky wasn’t absolutely black after all. There were stars in every corner you could see. Even when he thought he found an empty patch of nothingness his eyes adjusted and the sky filled with frosted stars and then what looked like the cream left by stars. He had never seen the night sky like this before. He had never seen it so cloudless, without the soft orange filter from the lights of the scheme.”

— Douglas Stuart

97. “It was a funny thing to be a dissapointment because you were honest and assumed others might be too. The games people played made his head hurt.”

— Douglas Stuart

98. “Is that a dolly ye’ve got, Shuggie?” The boy was using his name like he had known him a long while. Without waiting for an answer he added, “Are ye a wee girl?” He stepped into the long grass, flattening it as he came. Shuggie shook his head again. “If ye’re no’ a wee girl then ye must be a wee poof.” He tightened his smile. His voice was low and sweet, like he was talking to a puppy. “Ye’re no’ a wee poof, are ye?”

— Douglas Stuart

99. “A swift rage possessed him. “Why did you do that?” he spat out at Annie. “Why do girls always let boys do what they like?”

— Douglas Stuart

100. “Each time he held her he was less like a child. He was becoming something else, not yet a man, something like a stretched child, waiting to be inflated into adulthood. She clung to him while she could. He smelled fresh, like the fields outside.”

— Douglas Stuart