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Quote by Alice Sebold

Work

The Lovely Bones: Picador Classic

Alice Sebold's 'The Lovely Bones' is a haunting and beautifully written novel that delves into the complexities of grief and the search for justice. The story is narrated by Susie Salmon, a young girl who is killed and watches over her family and the investigation into her murder from the afterlife. The novel is a poignant exploration of loss, memory, and the resilience of the human spirit. more

Author

Alice Sebold
Alice Sebold

Alice Sebold is an American author born on September 6, 1963. Her works are known for their profound psychological descriptions and unique narrative style, with notable titles including 'The Lovely Bones' and 'Black Swan'. She explores themes of humanity, memory, and redemption in her writing. more

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“She bent her finger and then straightened it. The mystery was in the instant before it moved, the dividing moment between not moving and moving, when her intention took effect. It was like a wave breaking. If she could only find herself at the crest, she thought, she might find the secret of herself, that part of her that was really in charge. She brought her forefinger closer to her face and stared at it, urging it to move. It remained still because she was pretending... . And when she did crook it finally, the action seemed to start in the finger itself, not in some part of her mind.”

“[A] process was going on in which people were transformed into things, into pieces of reality which pure science can calculate and technical science can control. … [T]he safety which is guaranteed by well-functioning mechanisms for the technical control of nature, by the refined psychological control of the person, by the rapidly increasing organizational control of society – this safety is bought at a high price: man, for whom all this was invented as a means, becomes a means himself in the service of means.”

“I do not at all believe in human freedom in the philosophical sense... Schopenhauer’s saying, ‘A man can do what he wants, but not will what he wants,’ has been a very real inspiration to me since my youth; it has been a continual consolation in the face of life’s hardships, my own and others’, and an unfailing wellspring of tolerance. This realization mercifully mitigates the easily paralyzing sense of responsibility and prevents us from taking ourselves and other people too seriously; it is conducive to a view of life which, in part, gives humour its due.”

“We laugh at a man who, stepping out of his room at the very minute when the sun is rising, says, “It is my will that the sun shall rise”; or at him who, unable to stop a wheel, says, “I wish it to roll”; or, again, at him who, thrown in a wrestling match, says, “Here I lie, but here I wish to lie.” But, joking apart, do we not act like one of these three persons whenever we use the expression “I wish”?”