Small Island Quotes

Just this?

Is this really happening?

Hands on her hips.

Head in the clouds.

The contents is slopping over the side and spilling onto her dainty-foot shoes.

Is this perchance where he is aboding?

If I am not to kill this woman I must take a deep breath.

Word breathed by a Jamaican woman is a trap that can snap around you.

Swallowed up in vapour.

I was beaten.

England became my destiny.

My husband fixes the window.

Like a business deal had been struck between us.

My husband.

My man.

Entrance her, dazzle her.

But with Hortense my feet landed on solid ground with such a thump my ankles nearly snapped.

But the ground was now parched and dry - too hard for me to push my fingers down into the earth.

Sobbed like a boy lost.

When I turned back Gilbert stood before me as naked as Adam.

Keep that thing away from me.

What is that?

Ugly extremity began deflating, sagging, drooping,... like a dead bird in a tree.

Hear me now.

See me now - a small boy, dressed in a uniform.

Give me a map, blindfold me, spin me around three times, and I, dizzy and dazed, would still place my finger squarely on the Mother Country.

Where in Britain ships built, where is cotten woven, steel forged, cars made... whisky distilled?

An English soldier, a Tommy... 'Well, dunno. Africa, ain't it?'

Jam-where?

Man, it was hatred that raged in these men's eyes not anger!

They don't like to be all mixed up... not just Yanks. Anyone.

You gonna make us, whitey?

Stampede of bulls.

Other coloureds don't make such a fuss.

This woman was not seeking my protection. No, Queenie Bligh believed herself to be safeguarding me.

Hey, n*gger, I said sit where the lady tells ya.

This is England. This is not America. We do not do this in England.

Hortense - this deep-green brooch would look so pretty on her.

That jewel was no more than a cluster of flies caught by the light.

Small piece of brown dog's sh*t they had gathered on.

We have white women working here... what if you accidentally found yourself talking to a white woman?

One of his eyes looked at me while the other roamed in the socket like a lost marble.

I asked him why he could not have told me this an hour before when I still had feeling in my backside.

And I said straight into this man's one eye, 'but I just got here, man, and I not f*cked your wife yet.'

Pop

Nothing to do with my watch.

You see.

We must learn to live in peace - like you British when you are not at war with your neighbours.

She let me do it to her.

Because I was her husband.

Wouldn't even put her arms across my back.

Limp like a rag.

I'm aware he's coming for me.

'Hello, come in,' and that's when I woke up.

My own smile was causing me some pain behind my ears

I will come back again when I am qualified to teach in this country.

I thanked her.

Untroubled by the sound of their rising laughter.

My legs were too weak for me.

I was staring on a ladder, a mop, and a broom.

My foot kicked against a bucket.

Had he really no idea why we, two white people, could not bring up a coloured child?

Are you going to be proud of him? Glad that he's your son?

I haven't got the spine, not for that fight... and I'm his blessed mother.

I trust you and Gilbert. I know you. You're good people.

You.

We.

Just white.

Moved his eye to gaze on the ceiling.

My husband, was a man of class, a man of character, a man of intelligence.

I'm sorry... but I just can't understand a single word that you're saying.