Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Kent Haruf

Quote by Kent Haruf

“A girl is different. They want things. They need things on a regular schedule. Why, a girl's got purposes you and me can't even imagine. They got ideas in their heads you and me can't even suppose.”

Quote by Kent Haruf

Create image

Author

Kent Haruf
Kent Haruf

Kent Haruf was an American novelist known for his vivid portrayal of rural life in the American Midwest. His works delve into the complexities of human nature and the diversity of society, earning him a dedicated following among readers. more

You May Also Like

“That was on a night in August. Dad Lewis died early that morning and the young girl Alice from next door got lost in the evening and then found her way home in the dark by the streetlights of town and so returned to the people who loved her. And in the fall the days turned cold and the leaves dropped off the trees and in the winter the wind blew from the mountains and out on the high plains of Holt County there were overnight storms and three-day blizzards.”

PeopleWayHomeYoungNightFallGirlThreeNextFoundLostDarkMorningDoorsTreeWindColdDadMountainDiedTownsWinterStormEveningCountyAugustWay HomeBlizzard
Book:Benediction
Create image

“We feel an affinity with a certain thinker because we agree with him; or because he shows us what we were already thinking; or because he shows us in a more articulate form what we were already thinking; or because he shows us what we were on the point of thinking; or what we would sooner or later have thought; or what we would have thought much later if we hadn’t read it now; or what we would have been likely to think but never would have thought if we hadn’t read it now; or what we would have liked to think but never would have thought if we hadn’t read it now.”

IfsThinkingFeelsHas BeensShowsFormCertainAgreeThinkerSooner Or LaterAffinity
Book:Almost No Memory: Stories
Create image

“We all have an ongoing narrative inside our heads, the narrative that is spoken aloud if a friend asks a question. That narrative feels deeply natural to me. We also hang on to scraps of dialogue. Our memories don’t usually serve us up whole scenes complete with dialogue. So I suppose I’m saying that I like to work from what a character is likely to remember, from a more interior place.”

IfsFeelsWholeCharacterRememberAsksNaturalMemoriesSceneDialogueNarrativeInteriorsOngoingOur MemoriesScrap
Author:Lydia Davis
Create image

“You know the pain is part of the whole thing. And it isn’t that you can say afterwards the pleasure was greater than the pain and that’s why you would do it again. That has nothing to do with it. You can’t measure it, because the pain comes after and it lasts longer. So the question really is, Why doesn’t that pain make you say, I won’t do it again? When the pain is so bad that you have to say that, but you don’t.”

KnowsWholePainLastsPleasureGreater
Book:Break It Down: Stories
Create image

“The moment when a limit is reached, when there is nothing ahead but darkness: something comes in to help that is not real. Another way all this is like madness: a mad person not helped out of his trouble by anything real begins to trust what is not real because it helps him and he needs it because real things continue not to help him.”

WayNeedsPersonsRealMomentsHelpingDarknessTroubleLimitsMadnessMadAnother WayReal ThingsMad Person
Book:Break It Down: Stories
Create image

“I attempt all day, at work, not to think about what lies ahead, but this costs me so much effort that there is nothing left for my work. I handle telephone calls so badly that after a while the switchboard operator refuses to connect me. So I had better say to myself, Go ahead and polish the silverware beautifully, then lay it out ready on the sideboard and be done with it. Because I polish it in my mind all day long—this is what torments me (and doesn't clean the silver).”

ThinkingMindLongDoneLyingLeftEffortReadyCostLaysCleanRefuseHandleSilverTelephonesTormentPolishOperators
Author:Lydia Davis
Create image