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Laura van den Berg Quotes

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Famous Laura van den Berg Quotes

“The two impulses cannot be separated. The desire to have a life and the desire to disappear from it. The world is unlivable and yet we live in it every day.”

Life Living Disappearance

Book:The Third Hotel

Source: The Third Hotel

“I've lost the desire to hold onto that last physical artifact of the life I once had, as though I was buried and re-emerged as a person who doesn't believe in anything except the way existence rages on, furiously unconscious of when one life ends and another begins.”

Life Death Belief Change Existence

Book:What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us

Source: What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us

“It wasn't that she wanted so badly to remain in Paris; more than anything, she was incapable of deciding, of striking in a different, unknown direction, and was frustrated by her inability to release herself from her life as easily as her husband had, a top spiraling across a flat surface.”

Life Moving Change Decisions Paris Changing

Book:What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us

Source: What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us

“What's one small thing you could do today to better your life?" I will ask a woman who calls the helpline one afternoon, picking from a list the workshop leader provided. "If I could answer that question do you really think I'd be calling this stupid number?" the woman will say back.”

Life Change Challenges Help Phone Calls Helplines

Book:I Hold a Wolf by the Ears: Stories

Source: I Hold a Wolf by the Ears: Stories

“What do you think Frederick is trying to say with his pictures?" "That the world is too much for him." They turned onto a dirt road. White dust rose around the car. "Children say it all the time in different ways. The privilege is lost with age.”

Life Children Pain Adults Trauma Being Overwhelmed

Book:What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us

Source: What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us

“Behind every death lay a set of questions. To move on was to agree to not disturb these questions, to let them settle with the body under the earth. Yet some questions so thoroughly dismantled the terms of your own life, turning away was gravitationally impossible. So she would not be moving on. She would keep disturbing and disturbing. She imagined herself standing over a grave with a shovel and hacking away at the soil.”

Life Death Relationships Loss Grief Moving On Grieving Questions

Book:The Third Hotel

Source: The Third Hotel

“She did not know how to grieve in the context of her life.”

Life Death Loss Grief Grieving Mourning

Book:The Third Hotel

Source: The Third Hotel

“I was an attentive child; the world seemed like a bewildering place and I wanted all the knowledge I could come by.”

World Life Children Attention Knowledge Childhood Bewilderment Attentiveness

Book:I Hold a Wolf by the Ears: Stories

Source: I Hold a Wolf by the Ears: Stories

“Deception is necessary. In marriage, in life. Otherwise the world will just sandblast us away. You have to keep something for yourself.”

Life Marriage Survival Deception Secrets

Book:The Isle of Youth: Stories

Source: The Isle of Youth: Stories

About the Author

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Quotes: 68

Books & Sources

State of ParadiseRelated source material

I Hold a Wolf by the Ears: StoriesRelated source material

The Third HotelRelated source material

What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves UsRelated source material

Find MeRelated source material

The Isle of Youth: StoriesRelated source material

There Will Be No More Good Nights Without Good NightsRelated source material