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Claire Messud

Claire Messud Quotes

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Famous Claire Messud Quotes

“It's the strangest thing about being human: to know so much, to communicate so much, and yet always to fall so drastically short of clarity, to be, in the end, so isolate and inadequate. Even when people try to say things, they say them poorly or obliquely, or they outright lie, sometimes because they're lying to you, but as often because they're lying to themselves.”

PeopleKnowsTryingHumansEndsSometimesLyingFallCommunicateClarityBeing HumanInadequate
Author:Claire Messud
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“But do you know this idea of the imaginary homeland? Once you set out from shore on your little boat, once you embark, you'll never truly be at home again. What you've left behind exists only in your memory, and your ideal place becomes some strange imaginary concoction of all you've left behind at every stop.”

KnowsLittlesIdeasHomeLeftMemoriesBehindsStrangeIdealsBoatDo You KnowShoreImaginaryLeft BehindHomeland
Book:The Woman Upstairs
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“Nobody would know me from my own description of myself; which is why, when called upon (rarely, I grant) to provide an account, I tailor it, I adapt, I try to provide an outline that can, in some way, correlate to the outline that people understand me to have -- that, I suppose, I actually have, at this point. But who I am in my head, very few people really get to see that. Almost none. It's the most precious gift I can give, to bring her out of hiding.”

PeopleKnowsWayGivingTryingI CanMy OwnAccountsWho I AmDescriptionGrantsHidingKnow MeOutlinesUnderstand MeTailorsPrecious Gifts
Book:The Woman Upstairs
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“Just because something is invisible doesn't mean it isn't there. At any given time, there are a host of invisibles floating among us. There are clairvoyants to see ghosts; but who sees the invisible emotions, the unrecorded events? Who is that sees love, more evanescent than any ghost, let alone can catch it? Who are you tell me that I don't know what love is?”

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Book:The Woman Upstairs
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