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From an evolutionary point of view, most emotions - fear, desire, anger - serve some practical purpose, but nostalgia is a useless, futile thing because it is a longing for something that is permanently lost . . . .

David Nicholls

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David Nicholls
Age: 57
Born: 1966
Born: November 30
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Eastleigh Town
Purpose
Longing
Point
Useless
Desire
Emotions
Futile
Fear
Serve
Permanently
Lost
Anger
Evolutionary
Thing
View
Nostalgia
Something
Emotion
Practicals
Views
Practical

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The early days of any relationship are punctuated with a series of firsts - first sight, first words, first laugh, first kiss, first nudity, etc., with these shared landmarks becoming more widely spaced and innocuous as days turn to years, until eventually you're left with first visit to a National Trust property or some such.
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He wanted to live life in such a way that if a photograph were taken at random, it would be a cool photograph.
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This is where it all begins. Everything starts here, today.
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Well, I don't think Hollywood's a dirty word at all, I love a lot of Hollywood films.
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I'm just not prepared to be treated like this anymore.' 'Treated like what?' She sighed, and it was a moment before she spoke. 'Like you always want to be somewhere else, with someone else.
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[He] didn’t like to think of himself as vain, but there were definitely times when he wished there was someone on hand to take his photograph.
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These days grief seems like walking on a frozen river most of the time he feels safe enough, but there is always that danger that he will plunge through. Now he hears the ice creak beneath him, and so intense and panicking is the sensation that he has to stand for a moment, press his hands to his face and catch his breath.
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She glanced across to where Tilly and her brand new husband were posing for photographs, Tilly fluttering a fan coquettishly in front of her face. 'Unfortunately I didn't realise there was a French Revolutionary theme.' 'The Marie-Antoinette thing?' said Dexter. 'Well at least we know there'll be cake.
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No matter how predictable, banal and listless the rest of my life might be, you can guarantee that there'll always be something interesting going on with my skin.
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…surprised all over again at how very comforting very bad food can be.
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I had always been led to believe that ageing was a slow and gradual process, the creep of a glacier. Now I realise that it happens in a rush, like snow falling off a roof.
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The future rose up ahead of her, a succession of empty days, each more daunting and unknowable than the one before her.
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So - whatever happened to you?' 'Life. Life happened.
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She was reaching the limits of how much its possible to change a man
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Welcome to the graveyard of ambition.
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Maybe we've grown out of each other.
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David Holdaway was my stage name. I was an actor for about eight years in the '90s. I had to change my name because there was another David Nicholls, and I thought if I changed it to my mother's name, she'd be touched.
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When I was an actor, I worked with lots of men who had a bit of success early on, who were very good looking, who suddenly made a bit of money and who felt no embarrassment - and nor should they have done - about having a good time.
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I applied for the University of Life. Didn't get the grades.
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Being a decent human being will require effort and energy.
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