Top 160 Douglas Stuart Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “From where Eugene watched him, he looked like a half-shut penknife, a thing that should be sharp and useful, that was instead closed and waiting and rusting.”

— Douglas Stuart

102. “Jodie liked Poor-Wee-Chickie. She had endless patience for the lonely. But Mungo was wary of him; even though he knew better, he still believed the untrue things they said about the bachelor.”

— Douglas Stuart

103. “If they missed, then it was a twenty-foot plummet to the ground. But they flew across the night sky like fearless angels, their tracksuits flapping behind them like flightless wings.”

— Douglas Stuart

104. “Jodie reached her hand out to push his hair away and he stepped away from her. He could look at Jodie, but he wouldn’t let her touch him again. If Jodie, of all people, could not love him, all of him, perhaps he could not be loved.”

— Douglas Stuart

105. “It was a relief in the same way old people enjoyed having a child in the room, because it gave them something to fuss over when they had nothing left to say to each other.”

— Douglas Stuart

106. “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

107. “The boy was heartbroken to watch them take joy in her misery. He died for the fear she might think he was now one of them, laughing down the phone at her. He thought about her wrists and the blood on the tea towels, and like a big baby he cried from frustration right there in front of them.”

— Douglas Stuart

108. “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

109. “Before you cut yourself, you must have phoned him and told him to come get Shuggie. It all happened that fast. I couldn’t help you and help Shuggie.” Leek exhaled upwards, and his fringe rippled like a curtain in an open window. “It’s too much, Mammy. I can’t be the one to save everybody all the time.”

— Douglas Stuart

110. “She’s never going to get off the drink.” Shuggie was staring into the swampy broth. “She might. I just have to try harder to help her.”

— Douglas Stuart

111. “Mo-Maw smiled wanly before her eyes glazed over and filled with a faraway look. It was the look that the melancholy singers got at Hogmanay; the old men who gathered in corners and burst into mournful song, ruining good spirits, making old women cry.”

— Douglas Stuart

112. “She had loved him, and he had needed to break her completely to leave her for good.”

— Douglas Stuart

113. “Donald Jnr didn’t have to pay digs in to his mother. He didn’t have to feel grateful or guilty for anything.”

— Douglas Stuart

114. “This time, instead of the choking sourness, something bubbled inside him like yellow sunshine.”

— Douglas Stuart

115. “At half past ten her hair and her make-up were already done, and although she wasn’t leaving the house she put on her low-cut jumper and a fitted grey skirt. She sat drinking the dregs of old lager and wondering where exactly her boy was hiding from his childhood.”

— Douglas Stuart

116. “It gave me that much pleasure just to be proud of you.”

— Douglas Stuart

117. “The others tittered and went about ransacking the place with a sense of relief. There was nothing more shameful than being a poofter; powerless, soft as a woman.”

— Douglas Stuart

118. “She wondered what lay ahead for her baby brother. What woman would love him now? She hoped for someone who would be grateful for his good looks and reticent ways. Someone who would feel blessed by his quiet attention, who would take all his love and keep it safe. There would be girls who would want to mother him forever, who’d be reduced by the helpless dip of his eyes into some primitive need to cook and clean and care for him.”

— Douglas Stuart

119. “To Shuggie, the aunties who came to visit were often worse. It was like Agnes’s worse qualities went out and found a friend.”

— Douglas Stuart

120. “He liked to roam alone in the darkness, getting a good look at the underbelly. Out came the characters shellacked by the grey city, years of drink and rain and hope holding them in place. His living was made by moving people, but his favourite pastime was watching them.”

— Douglas Stuart

121. “Shuggie’s head pulled back on his neck in disgust. “Then who will look after her?” “Well. She’ll have to look after herself.” “Then how will she ever get better?”

— Douglas Stuart

122. “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

123. “Mungo took off his trainers and waded thigh-deep into the frigid loch. The cold made a castrato out of him; it made him want to sing. Except for the gentle lapping and the occasional swarm of midges, the loch was tranquil. Under the clear sky, the surface was shiny as a looking glass. Mungo wriggled his toes and could see them clearly beneath the water. Before him lay more emptiness than he had ever known.”

— Douglas Stuart

124. “Mungo was almost at the guttering when he saw the boy fall. The metal must have been wetter than he had thought, and he slipped off the high arm as gracelessly as a bag of flour falling off a shelf.”

— Douglas Stuart

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

— Douglas Stuart

126. “He locked the door that lay behind his eyes and walked away, leaving the body, the plaster dust, the flask of cold tea, and the angry gaffer behind.”

— Douglas Stuart

127. “That’s her away. It was what you said when you disposed of something.”

— Douglas Stuart

128. “Somebody here loved this other little boy.”

— Douglas Stuart

129. “Hamish was far from Glasgow and the glare of the Protestant boys who expected so much from him, and the rest of the scheme who expected so little.”

— Douglas Stuart

130. “Mo-Maw was only a few inches taller than her eldest child even then, but she’d strung him up like a butcher’s chicken.”

— Douglas Stuart

131. “If he got this and she got that, then what would they themselves do without? It was a mother’s math.”

— Douglas Stuart

132. “A murdered young girl, and the best photo her family could provide was the extra copies she had done for her monthly transit pass.”

— Douglas Stuart

133. “With a heavy blink Agnes drew her eyes over the officious woman. The end of her nose was pitted like a small strawberry.”

— Douglas Stuart

134. “Has he ever touched you, Shuggie? Father Barry, that is.”

— Douglas Stuart

135. “Mungo didn’t know how to respond to that. His mother was like a carnival magician, she was forever working some sleight of hand, sucking in her paunch, or turning different faces to these men. Jodie had said it was like how McCallum’s the baker kept turning their old wedding cakes in their window when the icing had yellowed in the sunlight. By the time some poor punter sliced into the fruit cake, it’d be too late to complain that it was claggy and unappetizing and soaked in rank old booze.”

— Douglas Stuart

136. “Mungo bent forward and lifted his sister off her feet. He wore her like a backpack and carried her, giggling, through to the narrow kitchenette. He dropped her in front of the electric cooker. “Feed me, woman.” Jodie extended two fingers and jabbed upwards into his ribs. “That shite doesn’t suit you. So don’t try it. Haaah-ha.”

— Douglas Stuart

137. “She was sobering up. She stared silently out the window, trying not to think of the trail of fatherless children and the childrenless father they were leaving in their wake. In her mind it looked like a trail of viscous, salty tears being dragged along behind the black hack. The excitement had left her by then.”

— Douglas Stuart

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

— Douglas Stuart

139. “They looked stiff, as though they had come from chapel, but wet-eyed, like they had taken too much Communion wine.”

— Douglas Stuart

140. “As girls, they had clung to one another like a string of pearls and sang at the top of their voices all the way down Sauchiehall Street.”

— Douglas Stuart

141. “When are you coming home?” “Look, don’t upset yourself. Doesn’t Mammy deserve a party? It’s been that long, Hugh.” Her voice trailed off. “I’ve been promised that many parties in my day. Why are you trying to ruin my party.” She was repeating herself now. “Mammy, I’m scared. Where are you?” “I’m up at Anna O’Hanna’s. Away to your bed, and I’ll see you when I get home.” This part was ominously vague. The line went dead, and it took him a while to replace the receiver.”

— Douglas Stuart

142. “So many lives were happening only two miles away from his and they all seemed brighter than his own.”

— Douglas Stuart

143. “She was no use at maths homework, and some days you could starve rather than get a hot meal from her, but Shuggie looked at her now and understood this was where she excelled. Everyday with the make-up on and her hair done, she climbed out of her grave and held her head high. When she had disgraced herself with drink, she got up the next day, put on her best coat, and faced the world. When her belly was empty and her weans were hungry, she did her hair and let the world think otherwise.”

— Douglas Stuart

144. “He let her cry, he let her talk, and he didn’t contradict her when she made him fine promises he knew she would be unable to keep.”

— Douglas Stuart

145. “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

146. “Mrs Campbell started back down the stairs. Jodie reached out to her but the woman shrugged her off. When she was back on her landing, she turned and looked up at the Hamilton siblings. “Ah’ve known you since ye were in nappies, and ah’ve known that selfish mother of yours even longer. If anybody should understand making excuses for the person they love, then it’s you two. Can ye no forgive me that?”

— Douglas Stuart

147. “The boy worried the sky.”

— Douglas Stuart

148. “What was once built to be new and healthful now looked sick with a poverty of hope.”

— Douglas Stuart

149. “The damp wind kissed her flushed neck and pushed down inside her dress.”

— Douglas Stuart

150. “In the silence he listened to her cough through the stupor, then she retched and a trickle of thick bile appeared on her lips. Shuggie reached inside her jumper sleeve and took out her toilet paper, carefully enough not to wake her. With a practised finger he reached inside her mouth and hooked out the bronchial fluid and bile. He wiped her mouth clean and lowered her head safely back on to her left shoulder. There.”

— Douglas Stuart