All the Lonely People Quotes

“That's the funny thing about life. Extraordinary things can happen to ordinary people like you and me, but only if we open ourselves up enough to let them.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“Smiler, this damn tea so weak it nearly a fortnight!”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“Joyce, you know you can't pick a fight with everyone who has something to say about us, don't you?'
'I know,' she whispered into the darkness. 'There's too many of them, and not enough hours in the day.'
'It's funny,' said Hubert. 'Until me came to this country me went my whole life thinking me was just plain old Hubert Bird and then me come and find that actually me the devil himself.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“After all, it was always easier to meet new people if there were two of you. It gave you confidence and made you feel at ease.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“But it’s like anything, the more time you give it, the better it gets.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“You see, the key to helping other people out of them loneliness is nothing more difficult than good old-fashioned perseverance. It's not always easy, me know that, but you've got to be willing to keep doors open, to carry on trying even if it doesn't look like it's working. You've got to refuse to give up on people, even if them giving up on themselves.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“For the rest of the day Hubert couldn't stop grinning. He grinned in the lift on the way back down to the warehouse. He grinned as he passed Mr Coulthard yelling at the new lads. And he grinned all the more later when Kenneth told him a very odd story about being sent on a wild-goose chase to the fourth floor by a girl from Haberdashery.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“Even the longest journey starts with a single step.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“Hubert tutted his disapproval and wondered how it had taken him until now to make the connection between “the Eastern Europeans” certain newspapers loved to complain about and his own situation all those years ago. It was the same story, only with a different cast of characters. People from one land coming to another because of the lack of opportunities in their own, working all the hours in the sort of backbreaking jobs the natives didn’t want to do. Day after day facing all manner of hostilities, wondering if they’d made a mistake leaving home.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“Everything new sounds ridiculous until someone makes it happen.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“I've got a question for you . . . What are you doing on Saturday night?'
Hubert stared at her confused.
'Me . . . me . . . got no plans.'
'Good,' she replied. 'In that case you're taking me to the five o'clock showing of South Pacific at the Regal in Blackfriars.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“He was scared and he felt vulnerable and the last thing on earth he wanted was to try to make friends with these strangers. He wished with all his heart that Joyce were here with him. After all, it was always easier to meet new people if there were two of you. It gave you confidence and made you feel at ease. Look, it said to the world, I already have one friend so I can't be all that bad. And Joyce always made him feel like his best self anyway, so there would be no resisting him.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“you raise them the best you can, make all the sacrifices in the world, give them all the love in the universe, and all they do is break your heart.” After lunch they called”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“It used to be the family all looking out for one another but it's not like that anymore. It used to be you at least knew your doctor, but these days you're lucky to get an appointment, let alone see the same GP twice. It used to be your neighbors kept an eye on you but people like to keep themselves to themselves now. It used to be that you belonged to a community, but really, is there such a thing anymore? Now it's more like every man for himself.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“who never thought to give her a call, even though, it seemed, they lived their entire lives through their phones.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“annoyance how the vet’s policy of calling out a pet’s name rather than that of their owner caused its usual flurry of sniggers.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“Hubert did not want to go into this room. He was scared and he felt vulnerable and the last think on earth he wanted was to try to make friends with these strangers. He wished with all his heart that Joyce were here with him. After all, it was always easier to meet new people if there were two of you. It gave you confidence and made you feel at ease. Look, it said to the world, I already have one friend so I can't be all that bad.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“Extraordinary things can happen to ordinary people like you and me, but only if we open ourselves up enough to let them.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“the key to helping other people out of them loneliness is nothing more difficult than good old-fashioned perseverance. It’s not always easy, me know that, but you’ve got to be willing to keep doors open, to carry on trying even if it doesn’t look like it’s working. You’ve got to refuse to give up on people, even if them given up on themselves.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly. —F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People

“When you don’t see someone regularly you imagine them carrying on with their lives as they’d always done from one year to the next, but the truth was things changed. People grew old and got sick, they sold up and moved on; they weren’t frozen in time waiting for the day that you knocked on their door looking for them.”
― Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People