"Would everyone simply return to their old habits once the pandemic was over, or would they have learned what Karen already knew –– that walking the city was its own reward? Time for thought, time to spy on the lives of others, time to discover new routes and expand the mental map."
–– Val McDermid (b. 1955), Scottish author
Source: Val McDermid. Past Lying: A Karen Pirie novel. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2023; p. 442.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, p. 16.
"We take the staples of modern life so much for granted until we're deprived of them. People do live quite well without what we consider to be basics, but they manage because they've never been deskilled by their presence. To lose them when you've lived all your life with power at the touch of a switch and water at the turn of a tap is shocking, then unsettling, then grindingly depressing."
–– Val McDermid (b. 1955), Scottish author
Source: Val McDermid. The Skeleton Road. Toronto: Harper Collins, 2014; p. 234.
via: Commonplace Book 2022, 2022, p. 56-7.
