The Hiding Place Quotes

“People say time is a great healer. They're wrong. Time is simply a great eraser. It rolls on and on regardless, eroding our memories, chipping away at those great big boulders of misery until there's nothing left but sharp little fragments, still painful but small enough to bear.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“The past isn't real. It's just a story we tell ourselves, and sometimes we lie.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“We romanticize the past with our period dramas and glossy film adaptations. A bit like we do with nature. Nature is violent, unpredictable and unforgiving. Eat or be eaten. That's nature. However much Attenborough or Coldplay you wrap it up in.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“You might not be able to judge a book by it's cover, but you can certainly judge the person who owns the book.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“Never go back. That's what people always tell you. Things will have changed. They won't be the way you remembered. Leave the past in the past. Of course, the last one is easier said than done. The past has a habit of repeating on you. Like bad curry,”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“Grief is personal. It isn’t something you can share, like a box of chocolates. It is yours and yours alone. A spiked steel ball chained to your ankle. A coat of nails around your shoulders. A crown of thorns. No one else can feel your pain. They cannot walk in your shoes because your shoes are full of broken glass and every time you try and take a step forward it rips your soles to bloody shreds. Grief is the worst kind of torture and it never ends. You”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“And after all, kids will be kids. The problem is, if you let kids be kids, then before you know it they're smearing their faces in pigs' blood, pushing each other off the edge of cliffs and smashing their mates' heads in with rocks. Our job as teachers, adults and parents is to stop, at every level, kids being kids, or they'll tear the fucking world down around our ears.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“People say time is a great healer. They’re wrong. Time is simply a great eraser. It rolls on and on regardless, eroding our memories, chipping away at those great big boulders of misery until there’s nothing left but sharp little fragments, still painful but small enough to bear. Broken hearts don’t mend. Time just takes the pieces and grinds them to dust.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Taking of Annie Thorne

“That’s the problem with life. It never gives you a heads-up. Never offers you even the slightest clue that this might be an important moment. You might want to take some time, drink it in. It never lets you know that something is worth holding on to until it’s gone.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“People say that life finds a way. Perhaps, sometimes, death does too.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“A reader cracks the spine, thumbs the pages, absorbs every word and nuance. You might not be able to judge a book by its cover, but you can definitely judge the person who owns the book.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“We're all too busy, too distracted by the sheer effort of getting through each day - working, paying the bills, the mortgage, shopping - that we don't want to look deeper. We don't dare. We want things to be fine. To be" hunky-dory ". Because we simply haven't got the energy to deal with it if they're not. It's only when something bad happens, something irretrievable, that we see things properly. And then it's too late”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“Never trust a person whose bookshelves are lined with pristine books, or worse, someone who places the books with their covers facing outwards. That person is not a reader. That person is a shower. Look at me and my great literary taste. Look at these acclaimed tomes that I have, most probably, never read. A reader cracks the spine, thumbs the pages, absorbs every word and nuance. You might not be able to judge a book by its cover, but you can definitely judge the person who owns the book.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Taking of Annie Thorne

“A life full of promise. But that’s all life ever is. A promise. Not a guarantee. We like to believe we have our place all set out in the future, but we only have a reservation. Life can be canceled at any moment, with no warning, no refund, no matter how far along you are in the journey. Even if you’ve barely had time to take in the scenery.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“Teaching is not all about rankings and inspection reports. It’s about helping our young people to become decent, rounded human beings, and getting them through their teens in one piece. If you lose them at this age, you lose them forever.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“Grief is personal. It isn't something you can share like a box of chocolates. It's yours and yours alone, a spiked steel ball chained to your ankle, a coat of nails around your shoulders, a crown of thorns. No one else can feely your pain. They cannot walk in your shoes because your shoes are full with broken glass and every time you take a step forward, it rips your soles to bloody shreds. Grief is the worst kind of torture and it never ends. You have dibs on that dungeon for the rest of your life.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“signs like DANGER, FORBIDDEN and NO TRESPASSING might as well have read: WELCOME, COME IN and DARE YOU.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Taking of Annie Thorne

“Happiness is overrated; it’s far too short-lived, for a start. If you bought it on Amazon, you’d demand a refund. Broke after a month and impossible to fix. Next time will try misery—apparently that shit lasts forever.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“There are no winners in life. Life is ultimately all about losing: your youth, your looks. But most of all, those you love.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“Nice cottage. Nice car. Nice clothes. But you never really know. You never really know what goes on inside.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“If Arnhill was a living organism, then the mine was its beating, smoke-bellowing heart.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“My little sister. Eight going on eighteen. Funny, feisty, stubborn, silly. Stupidly intelligent, annoyingly sweet. Hilarious, frustrating, entertaining. The boniest yet somehow also the softest little body to ever envelop me in a gangly web of arms and legs. A toothy smile that could shatter the hardest heart. A tough little tomboy who still wanted to believe in Santa Claus and magic. But then, who doesn't?”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“Arnhill is not a welcoming village. It is bitter and brooding and sour. It keeps to itself and views visitors with distrust. It is stoic and steadfast and weary all at the same time. It is the sort of village that glowers at you when you arrive and spits on the ground in disgust as you leave.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“Funny how the good memories flit by like butterflies: fleeting, fragile, impossible to capture without crushing them. But the bad ones—the guilt, the shame—they hang on in there, like parasites. Quietly eating you away from the inside.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“We’re all too busy, too distracted by the sheer effort of getting through each day – working, paying the bills, the mortgage, shopping – that we don’t want to look deeper. We don’t dare. We want things to be fine. To be ‘hunky-dory’. Because we simply haven’t got the mental energy to deal with it if they’re not. It’s only when something bad happens, something irretrievable, that we see things properly. And then it’s too late.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Taking of Annie Thorne

“She looks like someone who spends a lot of time being efficient and the rest of it sleeping. But not enough.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“... But you shouldn't sneak up on people.'

'I didn't. You just weren't listening properly.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“It’s a gray, blustery day, the wind herding clouds across the sky like a parent hurrying along recalcitrant children.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place

“Nunca voltes atrás. É o que nos estão sempre a dizer. As coisas terão mudado. Não serão como te recordas. Deixa o passado no passado. É claro que esta última é mais fácil de dizer que de fazer. O passado tem o hábito de se repetir em nós.”
― C.J. Tudor, La disparition d'Annie Thorne

“Time is simply a great eraser. It rolls on and on regardless, eroding our memories, chipping away at those great big boulders of misery until there’s nothing left but sharp little fragments, still painful but small enough to bear.”
― C.J. Tudor, The Hiding Place