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Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson Quotes

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Famous Jeanette Winterson Quotes

“Great control and great discipline are necessary when you reach your own editing stage of the book, but in the early stages you have to be prepared to let anything happen and to get it wrong or go off track. The development of a character is not smooth or simple - it is as tricky as meeting someone new whom you would like to know better.”

KnowsBookCharacterHappensSimpleStageDevelopmentDisciplineMeetingsPreparedTrackThings HappenSmoothEditingBe PreparedTrickyMeeting Someone
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“Written on the body is a secret code only visible in certain lights: the accumulations of a lifetime gather there. In places the palimpsest is so heavily worked that the letters feel like Braille. I like to keep my body rolled up away from prying eyes, never unfold too much, or tell the whole story. I didn't know that Louise would have reading hands. She has translated me into her own book.”

KnowsFeelsBookWholeStoriesBodyHandsLightEyeCertainReadingSecretToo MuchWrittenLettersLifetimeCodeVisibleAccumulationBraillePalimpsest
Book:Written On The Body
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“And when I look at a history book and think of the imaginative effort it has taken to squeeze this oozing world between two boards and typeset, I am astonished. Perhaps the event has an unassailable truth. God saw it. God knows. But I am not God. And so when someone tells me what they heard or saw, I believe them, and I believe their friend who also saw, but not in the same way, and I can put these accounts together and I will not have a seamless wonder but a sandwich laced with mustard of my own.”

ThinkingKnowsWorldWayBelieveLooksI CanTwoBookTogetherI BelieveMy OwnEffortWonderTakenSawsHeardEventsAccountsBoardsImaginativeGod KnowsSandwichesHistory BooksMustardSeamless
Book:Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
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“There are many forms of love and affection, some people can spend their whole lives together without knowing each other's names. Naming is a difficult and time-consuming process; it concerns essences, and it means power. But on the wild nights who can call you home? Only the one who knows your name.”

PeopleKnowsMeanWholeHomeTogetherFormNightNamesProcessDifficultKnowingConcernEssenceAffectionWhole LifeConsumingLife TogetherTime ConsumingLove And AffectionForms Of LoveWild NightsKnowing Each Other
Book:Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
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“I struggled in my mind with all kinds of defenses. Should I be hurt? Surprised? Should I laugh it off? I wanted to say something cruel to expiate my anger and to justify myself. But it's difficult with old friends; difficult because it's so easy. You know one another as well as lovers do and you have had less to pretend about. I poured myself a drink and shrugged. 'Nothing's perfect.”

KnowsShouldMindWellsKindWantedEasyDifficultHurtPerfectLaughingLoversDrinkDefenseAll KindsJustifyShould IOld Friends
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“I didn't know what hate felt like, not the hate that comes after love. It's huge and desperate and it longs to be proved wrong. And every day it's proved right it grows a little more monstrous. If the love was passion, the hate will be obsession. A need to see the once-loved weak and cowed beneath pity. Disgust is close and dignity is far away. The hate is not only for the once loved, it's for yourself too; how could you ever have loved this?”

IfsKnowsNeedsLittlesHatePassionGrowsFeltHugeDignityWeakPityObsessionDesperateFar AwayDisgustingMonstrousLove And Hate
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“Love, they say, enslaves and passion is a demon and many have been lost for love. I know this is true, but I know too that without love we grope the tunnels of our lives and never see the sun. When I fell in love it was as though I looked into a mirror for the first time and saw myself. I lifted my hand in bewilderment and felt my cheeks, my neck. This was me. And when I had looked at myself and grown accustomed to who I was, I was not afraid to hate parts of me because I wanted to be worthy of the mirror bearer.”

KnowsLifeFirstsHas BeensHandsWantedHatePassionLostFeltSunSawsOur LivesFirst TimeMirrorsWorthyDemonNecksNot AfraidCheeksAccustomedTunnelsWithout LoveBewilderment
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“The unknownness of my needs frightens me. I do now know how huge they are, or how high they are, I only know that they are not being met. If you want to find out the circumference of an oil drop, you can use lycopodium powder. That’s what I’ll find. A tub of lycopodium powder, and I will sprinkle it on to my needs and find out how large they are. Then when I meet someone I can write up the experiment and show them what they have to take on.”

IfsKnowsWantNeedsWritingI CanUseShowsKnow HowHugeMetsOilExperimentsPowderTubsSprinkles
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“In a vacuum all photons travel at the same speed. They slow down when travelling through air or water or glass. Photons of different energies are slowed down at different rates. If Tolstoy had known this, would he have recognised the terrible untruth at the beginning of Anna Karenina? 'All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own particular way.' In fact it's the other way around. Happiness is a specific. Misery is a generalisation. People usually know exactly why they are happy. They very rarely know why they are miserable.”

PeopleIfsKnowsWayDifferentFactsEnergyWaterKnownAirParticularTerribleMiseryRateGlassesSpeedUnhappyMiserableSlow DownVacuumsAnnaUntruthHappy FamilyPhotonsUnhappy FamilyGeneralisation
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“What it means to be human is to bring up your children in safety, educate them, keep them healthy, teach them how to care for themselves and others, allow them to develop in their own way among adults who are sane and responsibile, who know the value of the world and not its economic potential. It means art, it means time, it means all the invisibles never counted by the GDP and the census figures. It means knowing that life has an inside as well as an outside. And I think it means love.”

ThinkingKnowsWorldWayHumansWellsMeanChildrenArtCareValuesTeachKnowingEconomicFiguresHealthyAdultsSafetyYour ChildrenEducateSaneGdpCensusWhat It Means To Be HumanMean Love
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“Now that physics is proving the intelligence of the universe what are we to do about the stupidity of mankind? I include myself. I know that the earth is not flat but my feet are. I know that space is curved but my brain has been condoned by habit to grow in a straight line. What I call light is my own blend of darkness. What I call a view is my hand-painted trompe-l'oeil. I run after knowledge like a ferret down a ferret hole. My limitations, I call the boundaries of what can be known. I interpret the world by confusing other people's psychology with my own.”

PeopleKnowsWorldHas BeensHandsLightRunningEarthUniverseGrowsLinesMy OwnSpaceViewsBrainKnownDarknessPsychologyFeetMankindHabitProveStupidityPhysicsBoundariesHolesLimitationFlatsConfusingStraight LinesFerrets
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“Louise, I would gladly fire the past for you, go and not look back. I have been reckless before, never counting the cost, oblivious to the cost. Now, I've done the sums ahead. I know what it will mean to redeem myself from the accumulations of a lifetime. I know and I don't care. You set before me a space uncluttered by association. It might be a void or it might be a release. Certainly I want to take the risk. I want to take the risk because the life I have stored up is going mouldy.”

KnowsWantLooksMeanHas BeensDoneMightCarePastSpaceFireRiskCostLifetimeDon't CareReleaseI Don't CareAssociationVoidRecklessCountingAccumulationObliviousCounting The Cost
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“The continuous narrative of existence is a lie. There is no continuous narrative, there are lit-up moments, and the rest is dark. When you look closely, the twenty-four hour day is framed into a moment; the still-life of the jerky amphetamine world. That woman-a pieta. Those men, rough angels with an unknown message. The children holding hands, spanning time. And in every still-life, there is a story, the story that tells you everything you need to know.”

KnowsMenWorldNeedsLooksChildrenStillsMomentsStoriesHandsLyingHoursDarkExistenceFourMessagesAngelTwentiesNarrativeRoughLitFramedHolding HandsStill LifeAmphetamines
Book:Lighthousekeeping
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“Explore me' you said and I collected my ropes, flasks and maps, expecting to be back home soon. I dropped into the mass of you and I cannot find the way out. Sometimes I think I’m free, coughed up like Jonah from the whale, but then I turn a corner and recognise myself again. Myself in your skin, myself lodged in your bones, myself floating in the cavities that decorate every surgeon’s wall. That is how I know you. You are what I know.”

ThinkingKnowsWaySaidSometimesHomeTurnsWallMassSkinsCornersBonesMapsExpectingFloatingRopeRecogniseSurgeonsWhalesBack HomeJonahFlasks
Book:Written On The Body
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“I miss God. I miss the company of someone utterly loyal. I still don't think of God as my betrayer. The servants of God, yes, but servants by their very nature betray. I miss God who was my friend. I don't even know if God exists, but I do know that if God is your emotional role model, very few human relationships will match up to it.”

IfsThinkingKnowsHumansStillsCompanyRolesMissingEmotionalModelsMy FriendsServantRole ModelsBetrayLoyalHuman RelationshipsGod ExistsServant Of God
Book:Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
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“This is where the story starts, in this threadbare room. The walls are exploding. The windows have turned into telescopes. Moon and stars are magnified in this room. The sun hangs over the mantelpiece. I stretch out my hand and reach the corners of the world. The world is bundled up in this room. Beyond the door, where the river is, where the roads are, we shall be. We can take the world with us when we go and sling the sun under your arm. Hurry now, it's getting late. I don't know if this is a happy ending but here we are let loose in open fields.”

IfsKnowsWorldStoriesHandsStarsRoomsSunDoorsFieldsWallArmsMoonLateRiversWindowCornersHappy EndingsTelescopesExplodingCorners Of The WorldMoon And StarsHang OverOpen Fields
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“There's no such thing as effortless beauty - you should know that. There's no effort which is not beautiful - lifting a heavy stone or loving you. Loving you is like lifting a heavy stone. It would be easier not to do it and I'm not quite sure why I am doing it. It takes all my strength and all my determination, and I said I wouldn't love someone again like this. Is there any sense in loving someone you can only wake up to by chance?”

KnowsShouldSaidWould BeBeautifulChanceEffortEasierDeterminationStonesWake UpHeavyLove SomeoneLiftingLoving YouLoving SomeoneEffortless
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“Today, the sun is everywhere, and everything solid is nothing but its own shadow, I know that the real things in life, the things I remember, the things I turn over in my hands, are not houses, bank accounts, prizes or promotions. What I remember is love -- all love -- love of this dirt road, this sunrise, a day by the river, the stranger I met in a café. Myself, even, which is the hardest thing of all to love, because love and selfishness are not the same thing. It is easy to be selfish. It is hard to love who I am. No wonder I am surprised if you do.”

IfsKnowsRealHardHandsTodayRememberTurnsHouseEasyWonderSunMetsShadowRiversAccountsStrangerSelfishWho I AmHardestSelfishnessPrizeThings In LifeDirtSunriseHardest ThingPromotionReal ThingsBank AccountsBeing SelfishDirt Roads
Book:Lighthousekeeping
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“The secret of the world is this: the world is entirely circular and you will go round and round endlessly, never finding what you want, unless you have found what you really want inside yourself. When you follow a star you know you will never reach that star; rather it will guide you to where you want to go. Its a reference point, not an end in itself, even though you seem to be following it. So it is with the world. It will only ever lead you back to yourself. The end of all your exploring will be to cease from exploration and know the place for the first time.”

KnowsWorldWantLoveFirstsEndsSeemsTimeFoundStarsSecretFindingsFirst TimeRoundsFollowingGuidesWhat You WantCeaseExplorationExploringWant UTime Love
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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