“They were like an iceberg, it occurred to me, my father the seven-eighths that was under the water and my mother the luminous portion riding the waves. But no, they were two icebergs: solitary phenomena, impressive, independent, known only to themselves. I felt their hidden seven-eighths inside me as a dark bulkiness whose outlines I was always trying to map.” ParentsDaughters Book:All Things Consoled: A Daughter's Memoir Source: All Things Consoled: A Daughter's Memoir
“They were like an iceberg, it occurred to me, my father the seven-sights that was under the water and my mother the luminous portion riding the waves. But no, they were two icebergs: solitary phenomena, impressive, independent, known only to themselves. I felt their hidden seven-eighths inside me as a dark bulkiness whose outlines I was always trying to map.” ParentsDaughters Book:All Things Consoled: A Daughter's Memoir Source: All Things Consoled: A Daughter's Memoir
“The older you get, the closer your loves are to the surface. She was breathing rarefied air, the ether you come upon at high altitudes. I understood finally how long-held grievances and petty smallnesses might get burned off, and pure creativity and humour remain.” AgingAging Parents Book:Alone in the Classroom Source: Alone in the Classroom
“The mistakes don't matter," he informed her one night after she stumbled over a station ID and apologized on air. "It's the recovery that counts." If she had a nickel for every one of his smiles, she'd have ten cents. She nodded sheepishly, preferring Harry's way of phrasing the same point. "I learned that a mistake is just something you go on from." Harry's advice gave her a route to follow, a path forward. Somehow Eddy managed to exchange one form of stress for another.” MistakesGwen Book:Late Nights on Air Source: Late Nights on Air
“People elude me by halves. I see only the good, then only the bad. I never see them whole. I have no explanation for this. No explanation for the coolness that stretches out between my periods of warmth, the disaffection between my periods of affection. I touch people when I talk to them. I put my hand on a newcomer's knee, or hand, or arm, and immediately the new person is drawn into an intimacy that I cannot sustain. People are charmed by my warmth and disconcerted to discover that it doesn't last.” Friendship Book:Small Change Source: Small Change
“She would always be living her life backwards, she realized, trying to regain something perfect that she'd lost.” TryingLostPerfectBackwards Author:Elizabeth Hay
“And when is it ever convincing, the belief others have in your abilities? You know perfectly well they can't see the mess inside you.” KnowsWellsBeliefAbilityMessConvincing Author:Elizabeth Hay
“You stand next to the sea and you're in touch with all your longings and all your losses.” NextLossSeaLongingYour Loss Author:Elizabeth Hay
“A child lies like a grey pebble on the shore until a certain teacher picks him up and dips him in water, and suddenly you see all the colours and patterns in the dull stone, and it’s marvelous for the stone and marvelous for the teacher.” ChildrenLyingCertainWaterTeacherPicksStonesPatternsColourDullShoreMarvelousGreyDipPebbles Author:Elizabeth Hay
“How attraction works, making one's body almost painfully alive and one's thoughts concentrated, also painfully. And the truth of these powerful attractions - they have their own morality and nothing else matters.” MatterBodyPowerfulAliveMoralityAttraction Author:Elizabeth Hay
“We look so very different from the way we sound. It’s a shock, similar to hearing your own voice for the first time, when you’re forced to wonder how the rest of you comes across if you sound nothing like the way you think you sound. You feel dislodged from the old shoe of yourself.” IfsThinkingWayFeelsFirstsLooksDifferentSoundVoiceWonderFirst TimeShoesHearingShockOld Shoes Author:Elizabeth Hay
“Movement always helps. A world of thoughts occurred to her whenever she rode a train, and a lesser world whenever she went for a walk.” WorldHelpingWalksMovementTrain Author:Elizabeth Hay