Lionel Shriver Quotes

Who cuts is easily wounded. The readier you are to offend the sooner you are offended.

I get angry when people bring derisory actions against me.

The thing with me is if I feel disrespected I won't hesitate to fight. But it takes a lot to make me feel disrespected.

Weakness is provocation.

Whoever incites anger has a strong insurance against indifference.

I'm more alarmed by people reacting violently to the violence in my films than I am by the violence in films.

I'm honestly offended whenever someone says I'm being harsh.

If somebody says or does something to me first, then I'll respond, and I go overboard with it, and it seems like I'm the one that has beef with somebody.

Tread gently on anyone who looks at you sideways.

One insult pocketed soon produces another.

I do notice that when I've been away and I come back to London. People look at you. People are ready to pick arguments.

I'm allergic to attitude.

They look at someone like me, and I just really get up their nose. I really wind them up.

Man's enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself.

As supportive as my hometown is, in my high school, there are people who would probably walk up to me and punch me in the face. There's a select few that will never like me. They don't like what I stand for. They don't like somebody who stands for being sober, who stands for anything happy. They're going to be negative no matter what.

Hate is always a clash between our spirit and someone else's body.

Did Mad freakin' Max just call me irritating?

We do not wonder that there is conflict in the world. There is now, and has been from the time that Cain slew Abel, so much of hatred.

I love it when someone insults me. That means that I don't have to be nice anymore.

I admit that invective is one of my pleasures. This only brings me problems in life, but that's it. I attack, I insult. I have a gift for that, for insults, for provocation. So I am tempted to use it.

I'm not good with bullies and zealots.

The worst thing you can do if you want to start a fight is to use derogatory terminology.

Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my Browning!

I mean if someone you know pushes a button you're gonna strike back out.

I've made so many people angry that they kind of blur into one unpleasant memory of people staring at you with somewhere between passive aggression and active aggression.