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Nicole Krauss

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Famous Nicole Krauss Quotes

“I knew that to find and to feel Yoav again would be terribly painful, because of what had become of him, and because of what I knew he could ignite in me, a vitality that was excruciating because like a flare it lit up the emptiness inside me and exposed what I always secretly knew about myself: how much time I'd spent being only partly alive, and how easily I'd accepted a lesser life.”

FeelsWould BeAlivePainfulAcceptedEmptinessExposedLitVitalityIgniteFlareEmptiness Inside
Author:Nicole Krauss
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“Maybe the first time you saw her you were ten. She was standing in the sun scratching her legs. Or tracing letters in the dirt with a stick. Her hair was being pulled. Or she was pulling someone's hair. And a part of you was drawn to her, and a part of you resisted--wanting to ride off on your bicycle, kick a stone, remain uncomplicated. In the same breath you felt the strength of a man, and a self-pity that made you feel small and hurt. Part of you thought: Please don't look at me. If you don't, I can still turn away. And part of you thought: Look at me.”

IfsMenFeelsFirstsLooksMadeStillsI CanSelfTurnsFeltHurtSunSawsHairPleaseTenFirst TimeStandingStonesLettersBreathsSticksLegsPityKicksDirtPullingLook At MeBicycleSelf PityTracingUncomplicatedHistory Of Love
Book:The History of Love: A Novel
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“Why does one begin to write? Because she feels misunderstood, I guess. Because it never comes out clearly enough when she tries to speak. Because she wants to rephrase the world, to take it in and give it back again differently, so that everything is used and nothing is lost. Because it's something to do to pass the time until she is old enough to experience the things she writes about.”

WorldWantGivingFeelsWritingTryingDoeEnoughUsedLostSpeakMisunderstoodBack Again
Author:Nicole Krauss
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“If at large gatherings or parties, or around people with whom you feel distant, your hands sometimes hang awkwardly at the ends of your arms - i you find yourself at a loss for what do with them, overcome with sadness that comes when you recognize the foreignnes of your own body - it's because your hands remember a time when the division between mind and body, brain and heart, what's inside and what's outside, was so much less.”

PeopleIfsFeelsMindHeartEndsSometimesBodyHandsRememberLossPartyBrainSadnessArmsOvercomingFinding YourselfDivisionGatheringMind And BodyHeart And BrainHistory Of Love
Author:Nicole Krauss
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“When you are young, you think it's going to be solved by love. But it never is. Being close -- as close as you can get -- to another person only makes clear that impassable distance between you.' If being in love only made people more lonely, why would everyone want it so much?' Because of the illusion. You fall in love, it's intoxicating, and for a little while you feel like you've actually become one with the other person. Merged souls and so on. You think you'll never be lonely again.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWantFeelsLittlesPersonsMadeSoulYoungFallClearLike YouIllusionLonelyDistanceFalling In LoveBeing In Love
Author:Nicole Krauss
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“I’ve always liked the feeling of traveling light; there is something in me that wants to feel I could leave wherever I am, at any time, without any effort. The idea of being weighed down made me uneasy, as if I lived on the surface of a frozen lake and each new trapping of domestic life - a pot, a chair, a lamp - threatened to be the thing that sent me through the ice.”

IfsWantFeelsMadeIdeasFeelingsLightEffortSurfaceIceLakesChairsPotThreatenedFrozenLampsUneasyDomestic LifeFrozen Lake
Author:Nicole Krauss
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“To touch and feel each thing in the world, to know it by sight and by name, and then to know it with your eyes closed so that when something is gone, it can be recognized by the shape of its absence. So that you can continue to possess the lost, because absence is the only constant thing. Because you can get free of everything except the space where things have been.”

KnowsWorldFeelsHas BeensEyeNamesLostSpaceGoneShapesSightConstantAbsence
Book:Man Walks Into a Room
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“You’re lost in your own world, in the things that happen there, and you’ve locked all the doors. Sometimes I look at you sleeping. I wake up and look at you and I feel closer to you when you’re like that, unguarded, than when you’re awake. When you’re awake you’re like someone with her eyes closed, watching a movie on the inside of your eyelids. I can’t reach you anymore. Once upon a time I could, but not now, and not for a long time.”

WorldFeelsLooksLongI CanSometimesHappensEyeLostSleepDoorsLong TimeWake UpAwakeLockedHer EyesOnce Upon A TimeEyelids
Author:Nicole Krauss
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