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Quote by Clare Leslie Hall

“When my relationship ended with Gabriel all those years ago, I was devastated for a while, and then I did what every self-respecting woman would do: I shut the door on it, on him. I taught myself to think of Gabriel as someone who belonged to my teenage years, a first crush, little more to me than my brief fixation with the singer Johnnie Ray. Seeing Gabriel again, like this, in the place where we once meant so much to each other, could she,e me to my core if I let it.”

Quote by Clare Leslie Hall

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Broken Country

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Clare Leslie Hall

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“With Wang Qiyao’s flowery apron around his waist and a pair of protective sleeves over his shirt, he brought the meal to Wang Qiyao’s bedside, his hair mussed up, his forehead oily and perspiring, his eyes aglow with excitement. Tears rolled down her cheeks and into her bowl as she ate. Kang Mingxun watched helplessly on one side, looking very much like a waiter on duty. Soon he too became teary. They could no longer put it off: a decision had to be made.”

“»Ker te ljubim dovolj, si zate želim srečo. Če torej misliš, da ti bo najin razhod pomagal pri tem, ga sprejmem. Ne morem ga razumeti, a te ne bom več skušal prepričati v nasprotno. In ko boš prenehala bežati pred sabo in zakrpala rane, ki so te prisilile, da nama pomahaš v slovo, boš verjetno postala oseba, kakršna si želiš biti. In če te bo to osrečilo, bom srečen zate.«”

“You know,” I said, pulling my sleeves over my hands, “I don’t think people should talk every day unless they mean it.” She looked at me. “What do you mean by ‘mean it’?” “I mean… unless they plan to stay. To actually be there. Because otherwise, you’re just giving someone a habit. A dependency. And when you leave, it’s not just absence. It’s withdrawal.” She blinked, and said, “You’re not mad at them. You’re mad you let it feel like forever.” I laughed softly. “Exactly.”

“I don't know how to walk away from love. Even the kind that hurts. Even the kind that barely sees me. If someone loves me, even a little, I will turn it into a reason to stay. I will hold on too tightly. I will soften every wound. I will rewrite every red flag as a test of my patience. Because I've always believed that love was the prize. That being loved, even poorly, was still something sacred. So I settle. Not because I don't know better, but because I still think love will save me. And maybe that's the saddest part. Not the settling, but the fact that I keep calling it home.”

“The saddest thing about me? It's not that I've been hurt. It's not even that people left. It's that if someone who broke me texted me tomorrow asking for help I'd reply. I'd care. I'd show up. Even if they disappeared. Even if they didn't check if I made it out alive. Even if they chose silence when I needed saving. I'd still answer. Not because they deserve it. But because that's just who I am. And sometimes, being that person feels like the loneliest thing in the world.”