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Nicole Krauss

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Famous Nicole Krauss Quotes

“Even now, all possible feelings do not yet exist, there are still those that lie beyond our capacity and our imagination. From time to time, when a piece of music no one has ever written or a painting no one has ever painted, or something else impossible to predict, fathom or yet describe takes place, a new feeling enters the world. And then, for the millionth time in the history of feeling, the heart surges and absorbs the impact.”

WorldHeartStillsFeelingsLyingImaginationPiecesImpossibleWrittenPaintingCapacityImpactFathomNew Feelings
Book:The History of Love: A Novel
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“She [my mother] was the force around which our world turned. My mother was propelled through the universe by the brute force of reason. She was the judge in all our arguments. One disapproving word from her was enough to send us off to hide in a corner, where we would cry and fantasize our own martyrdom. And yet. One kiss could restore us to princedom. Without her, our lives would dissolve into chaos.”

WorldReasonEnoughMotherUniverseForceOur LivesCryJudgingKissingArgumentChaosCornersOur WorldBrutesMartyrdomBrute ForceDisapproving
Author:Nicole Krauss
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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.”

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Author:Nicole Krauss
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“Without memories to cloud it, the mind perceives with absolute clarity. Each observation stands out in stark relief. In the beginning, when there's not yet a smudge, the slate still blank, there is only the present moment: each vital detail, shocked color, the fall of light. Like film stills. The mind relentlessly open to the world, deeply impressed, even hurt by it: not yet gauzed by memory.”

WorldMindStillsMomentsLightFilmFallHurtMemoriesColorAbsolutesCloudsDetailsClarityObservationPerceiveReliefPresent MomentBlankImpressedShockedStanding OutStarksSlate
Book:Man Walks Into a Room
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“Except for when I was very little and thought that being an "engineer" meant he drove a train. Then I imagined him in the seat of an engine car the color of coal, a string of shiny passenger cars trailing behind. One day my father laughed and corrected me. Everything snapped into focus. It's one of those unforgettable moments that happen as a child, when you discover that all along the world has been betraying you.”

WorldChildrenLittlesHas BeensMomentsHappensFatherBehindsFocusCarColorOne DayTrainSeatsStringsLaughedEnginesBetrayEngineersCoalPassengersUnforgettableUnforgettable Moments
Author:Nicole Krauss
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“Once upon a time there was a boy who lived in a house across the field from a girl who no longer exists. They made up a thousand games. She was Queen and he was King. In the autumn light, her hair shone like a crown. They collected the world in small handfuls. When the sky grew dark they parted with leaves in their hair.”

WorldMadeLightGirlGamesHouseDarkBoysSkyFieldsHairGrewKingsThousandQueensAutumnCrownsHandfulOnce Upon A TimeHistory Of Love
Author:Nicole Krauss
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“Now we'd known each other for two years, the side of my calf was touching his shins, and his stomach was against my ribs. He said, "I don't think it's end of world to be my girlfriend." I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. It took seven languages to make me; it would be nice if I could have spoken just one.”

IfsThinkingWorldYearsSaidTwoEndsWould BeLanguageSidesKnownNiceMouthsSevenGirlfriendJust OneIf I CouldTwo YearsTouchingStomachBeing NiceMy GirlfriendRibsCalvesBe My Girlfriend
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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“Sometimes, waking early before the others, wandering the rooms wrapped in a blanket or drinking my tea in the empty kitchen, I had that most rare of feelings, the sense that the world, so consistently overwhelming and incomprehensible, in fact has an order, oblique as it may seem, and I a place within it.”

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Book:Great House: A Novel
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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.”

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Author:Nicole Krauss
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