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Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson Quotes

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Famous Jeanette Winterson Quotes

“When we make a change, it's so easy to interpret our unsettledness as unhappiness, and our unhappiness as a result of having made the wrong decision. Our mental and emotional states fluctuate madly when we make big changes in our lives, and some days we could tight-rope across Manhattan, and other days we are too weary to clean our teeth. This is normal. This is natural. This is change.”

MadeStatesBigsEasyNaturalDecisionResultsOur LivesEmotionalNormalCleanTeethUnhappinessWearyRopeMaking ChangesManhattanBig ChangesWrong Decision
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“When I was born I became the visible corner of a folded map. The map has more than one route. More than one destination. The map that is the unfolding self is not exactly leading anywhere. The arrow that says YOU ARE HERE is your first coordinate. There is a lot that you can't change when you are a kid. But you can pack for the journey.”

FirstsSelfKidsBornJourneyCornersVisibleMapsDestinationPacksRoutesArrowsCan't ChangeUnfoldingCoordinates
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“Words like passion and ecstasy, we learn them but they stay flat on the page. Sometimes we try to turn them over, find out what's on the other side, and everyone has a story to tell os a woman or a brothel or an opium night or a war. We fear it. We fear passion and laugh at too much love and those who love too much.”

LoveTryingWarSometimesStoriesAgeNightTurnsPassionSidesLaughingToo MuchPagesFlatsEcstasyOpiumMuch LoveBrothelsEveryone Has A Story
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“I know our feelings can be so unbearable that we employ ingenious strategies – unconscious strategies – to keep those feelings away. We do a feelings-swap, where we avoid feeling sad or lonely or afraid or inadequate, and feel angry instead. It can work the other way, too – sometimes you do need to feel angry, not inadequate; sometimes you do need to feel love and acceptance, and not the tragic drama of your life. It takes courage to feel the feeling – and not trade it on the feelings-exchange, or even transfer it altogether to another person.”

KnowsWayNeedsFeelsPersonsSometimesFeelingsAcceptanceDramaLonelyAngryTradeStrategyUnconsciousTragicUnbearableInadequateTransfersIngeniousFeeling SadLove And Acceptance
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“There is still a popular fantasy, long since disproved by both psychoanalysis and science, and never believed by any poet or mystic, that it is possible to have a thought without a feeling. It isn’t. When we are objective we are subjective too. When we are neutral we are involved. When we say ‘I think’ we don’t leave our emotions outside the door. To tell someone not to be emotional is to tell them to be dead.”

ThinkingLongStillsFeelingsEmotionFantasyDoorsEmotionalPoetInvolvedObjectivesSubjectivePsychoanalysisMystic
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“In the economy of the body, the limbic highway takes precedence over the neural pathways. We were designed and built to feel, and there is no thought, no state of mind, that is not also a feeling state. Nobody can feel too much, though many of us work very hard at feeling too little. Feeling is frightening.”

FeelsMindLittlesHardStatesFeelingsBodyEconomyToo MuchBuiltState Of MindFrighteningHighwaysPathwaysPrecedence
Book:Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
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