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Claire North Quotes

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Famous Claire North Quotes

“You say 'love' too easily, Kepler." "No, not rally - please don't call me that. The idea that love has to be a blazing romantic thing of monogamous stability is innately ludicrous. You loved your parents, perhaps, because they were the warmth you could flee to. You loved your first childhood crush with a passion that made your lips tingle, your flesh grow light in their presence. You loved your wife with the steadiness of an ocean against the shore; your lover with the blaze of a shooting star, your best friend with the confidence of a mountain. Love is a many-splendorous thing, as the old song says....”

“THERE IS NO WORD IN NORMSPEAK, IN MDO-SO, IN ADJUMIRI TO EXPRESS THE LOVE THAT IS REQUIRED TO CHANGE A WORLD. IT IS A UNIVERSAL LOVE FOR ALL CREATURES, ALL LIVING THINGS. IT DEMANDS NOT THAT YOU FIGHT FOR THE ONE PERSON WHO IS DEAR TO YOUR HEART, BUT THAT YOU LET THEM PERISH IF TWO OTHERS MAY LIVE. IT IS THE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR A STRANGER. THIS IS THE LOVE THAT A GOD SHOULD HAVE, AND IT IS BEAUTIFUL, AND IT IS UNFORGIVING, AND IT IS IT CRUEL.”

“As children, we look to adults to be perfect and say the right thing. Mama Taaq, face streaked grey from dust and tears, should have replied to her shivering, shuddering child: “You did everything right, my darling. You did everything you could and none of this is your fault. Later she would say those words, but later was too late, because that night all she did was cry and turn away from her still-living daughter to try and find her dead one. These things are entirely natural and understandable – just not to a child.”