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Ned is the fictional two-year-old son who Will invents in order to meet single mothers. He finds it easier to attract women by posing as a single father and eventually meets Suzie, who fully believes his charade. Though Ned isn’t a real person, Will lies about him so convincingly that he almost convinces himself of the child’s existence on more than one occasion. Naturally, Suzie is upset when she learns the truth about “Ned,” and it takes her a while to see Will as anything other than a pathetic liar.
Ned Freeman Quotes in About a Boy
The About a Boy quotes below are all either spoken by Ned Freeman or refer to Ned Freeman. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
What was happening here? He decided that children were what was happening here; that children served as a symbolic blemish, like a birthmark or obesity, which gave him a chance where previously there would have been none. Maybe children democratized single women.
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Chapter 12
Quotes
The truth was that he didn’t mind. He applied for these jobs in the same spirit that he had volunteered to work in the soup kitchen, and in the same way that he had become the father of Ned: it was all a dreamy alternative reality that didn’t touch his real life, whatever that was, at all. He didn’t need a job. He was OK as he was.
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Chapter 13
Quotes
His mum was pretty. And Will seemed quite well off, they could go and live with Will and his kid, and then there’d be four of them, and four was twice as good as two. And maybe, if they wanted to, they could have a baby. His mum wasn’t too old. She was thirty-eight. You could have a baby when you were thirty-eight. So then there would be five of them, and it wouldn’t matter quite so much if one of them died.
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Get the entire About a Boy LitChart as a printable PDF.
Ned Freeman Quotes in About a Boy
The About a Boy quotes below are all either spoken by Ned Freeman or refer to Ned Freeman. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
What was happening here? He decided that children were what was happening here; that children served as a symbolic blemish, like a birthmark or obesity, which gave him a chance where previously there would have been none. Maybe children democratized single women.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12
Quotes
The truth was that he didn’t mind. He applied for these jobs in the same spirit that he had volunteered to work in the soup kitchen, and in the same way that he had become the father of Ned: it was all a dreamy alternative reality that didn’t touch his real life, whatever that was, at all. He didn’t need a job. He was OK as he was.
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13
Quotes
His mum was pretty. And Will seemed quite well off, they could go and live with Will and his kid, and then there’d be four of them, and four was twice as good as two. And maybe, if they wanted to, they could have a baby. His mum wasn’t too old. She was thirty-eight. You could have a baby when you were thirty-eight. So then there would be five of them, and it wouldn’t matter quite so much if one of them died.
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Page Number and Citation:
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