Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by André Aciman

Quote by André Aciman

“If I had a tumor, then I'd be dead before the year was out, and if I were dead, then there'd be nothing left, no second chances, no leap-year parties, and this waiting for the right time would have been for nothing. I will have died having lived the wrong life. No, not lived: waited.”

Quote by André Aciman

Book:Enigma Variations
Create image

Work

Enigma Variations

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

André Aciman

André Aciman, born on January 2, 1951, is a renowned writer known for his profound psychological insights and unique narrative style. His works, such as 'The Museum of Unconditional Love,' are celebrated for their emotional depth and distinctive storytelling. more

You May Also Like

“It is undignified to inject yourself with hormones designed to slow or enhance ovarian production. It is undignified to have your ovaries monitored by transvaginal ultrasound; to be sedated so that your eggs can be aspirated into a needle; to have your husband emerge sheepishly from a locked room with the “sample” that will be combined with your eggs under supervision of an embryologist. The grainy photo they hand you on transfer day, of your eight-celled embryo (which does not look remotely like a baby), is undignified, and so is all the waiting and despairing that follows.”

WaitingMedicineFertilityInfertilityReproductive HealthDispairIvfEmbryologyUndignified
Book:The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine, and Motherhood
Create image

“Every waiting season in my life has left its mark on me. I have memories, scars. And honestly? I don’t mind the scars anymore. They are part of me now; I wouldn’t recognize myself without them.”

InspirationalWaitingScars
Book:When God Says "Wait": Navigating Life's Detours and Delays Without Losing Your Faith, Your Friends, or Your Mind
Create image

“On Not Finding You at Home Usually you appear at the front door when you hear my steps on the gravel, but today the door was closed, not a wisp of pale smoke from the chimney. I peered into a window but there was nothing but a table with a comb, some yellow flowers in a glass of water and dark shadows in the corners of the room. I stood for a while under the big tree and listened to the wind and the birds, your wind and your birds, your dark green woods beyong the clearing. This is not what it is like to be you, I realized after a few of your magnificent clouds flew over the rooftop. It is just me thinking about being you. And before I headed back down the hill, I walked in a circle around your house, making an invisible line which you would have to cross before dark.”

PoetryWaitingEmptyYouMe
Book:The Trouble With Poetry - And Other Poems
Create image