Quotessence
Home / Books / Normal People

Normal People

Book by Sally Rooney · 21 quotes · Normal People, Love, Sally Rooney

Filter quotes by topic

AllNormal PeopleLoveSally RooneyPeopleMoneyNormalConnellCultureFriendshipLifeLiteratureLonelinessMariannePleasure2012AprilArtAttractionBooksChange

Normal People Quotes

“The whole time we were together, why didn't you tell me any of this? I don't know. I suppose I didn't want you to think I was damaged or something. I was probably afraid you didn't want me anymore. Finally he puts his face in his hands. His fingers feel cold and clammy on his eyelids and there are tears in his eyes. The harder he presses with his fingers, the faster the tears seep out, wet, onto his skin. Jesus, he says. His voice sounds thick and he clears his throat. Come here, he says. And she comes to him. He feels terribly ashamed and confused. They lie face-to-face and he puts his arms around her body. In her ear he says: I'm sorry, okay? She holds onto him tightly, her arms winding around him, and he kisses her forehead. But he always thought she was damaged, he thought it anyway.”

Normal People
Book:Normal People
Create image

“Miss Keaney was whistling and stamping her feet. On the pitch, Connell and Aidan embraced like reunited brothers. Connell was so beautiful. It occurred to Marianne how much she wanted to see him having sex with someone; it didn’t have to be her, it could be anybody. It would be beautiful just to watch him. She knew these were the kind of thoughts that made her different from other people in school, and weirder.”

Normal People
Book:Normal People
Create image

“Quando parla con Marianne ha una sensazione di riservatezza condivisa. Di sé potrebbe raccontarle tutto, perfino le cose più strane, e lei non andrebbe mai a spifferarlo, questo lo sa. Essere solo con lei è come aprire una porta e chiudersi alle spalle la vita normale. Non ha paura di lei, che in realtà è una persona piuttosto tranquilla, ma teme la sua vicinanza per via del modo sconcertante in cui si ritrova a comportarsi, per le cose che dice, e che di norma non direbbe mai.”

Normal PeopleRooneyIrish LiteratureIntimancyConfidenza
Book:Normal People
Create image

“Connell’s initial assessment of the reading was not disproven. It was culture as class performance, literature fetishised for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterwards feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about. Even if the writer himself was a good person, and even if his book really was insightful, all books were ultimately marketed as status symbols, and all writers participated to some degree in this marketing. Presumably this was how the industry made money. Literature, in the way it appeared at these public readings, had no potential as a form of resistance to anything.”

ArtLiteratureCapitalismRadicalismClassismIntellectual Snobbery
Book:Normal People
Create image

“Era cultura como representación de clase, literatura fetichizada por su capacidad de transpotar a gente cultivada a viajes emocionales falsos que luego les permitían sentirse superiores a la gente inculta acerca de cuyos viajes emocionales les gustaba leer. Aunque el autor en sí fuese buena persona, y aunque el libro fuera verdaderamente profundo, todos los libros se comercializaban en último término como símbolos de estatus y todos los escritores participaban en un grado u otro de ese mercadeo. Así era, cabía suponer, cómo ganaba dinero la insdustria. La literatura, tal y como estaba presente en esas lecturas públicas, no tenía ningún potencial como forma de resistencia ante nada.”

LiteraturaLibrosCulturaLecturas
Book:Normal People
Create image

“Uma noite, a biblioteca começou a ser fechada justamente quando chegou a um trecho de Emma em que parece que o sr. Knightley vai se casar com Harriet, e ele teve que fechar o livro e voltar andando para casa em um estado de estranha agitação emocional. Está achando graça de si mesmo, se deixando levar pelo drama dos romances desse jeito. Parece intelectualmente frívolo se preocupar com pessoas ficcionais se casando. Mas é isso: a literatura o comove. Um de seus professores chama essa sensação de “o prazer de ser tocado pela grande arte”. Nessas palavras, parece quase sexual. E de certo modo, o que Connell sente quando o sr. Knightley beija a mão de Emma não é totalmente assexual, embora sua relação com a sexualidade seja indireta. Isso sugere a Connell que a mesma imaginação que ele usa como leitor é também necessária para entender as pessoas de verdade, e para se tornar íntimo delas.”

Livros
Book:Normal People
Create image