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I Quotes

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All I Quotes

“It's true, these last few years I've lived watching myself in the act of loss—the art of losing, Elizabeth Bishop called it, but for me no art only badly-done exercises acts of the heart forced to question its presumptions in this world its mere excitements acts of the body forced to measure all instincts against pain acts of parting trying to let go without giving up yes Elizabeth a city here a village there a sister, comrade, cat and more no art to this but anger”

“It's true we all build imaginary prisons for ourselves. Believe that we are trapped behind the invisible bars of the lives we have somehow carelessly constructed for ourselves, despite our youthful promises to ourselves. We see adults who are stagnant and miserable as we grow up. They graffiti the walls behind them with their mistakes and we swear secret oaths that we will heed those warnings. We’re much too clever, we know all the shortcuts and the back alleys.”

“It’s true what they say, that words are the true weapons. Those who fight with steel are limited to the strength of their arm, the reach of their blade, and the timing of their strike; but those who fight with persuasion know no limits – not time, nor status, nor chance.”

“It's truthfully difficult growing up a woman. When I was a girl, we lived in a small town for the most part and nobody cared to know about anything other than what they already knew. And I was something they didn't know. I really think it was harder for me than the average... girls hate you when you're adorable. Every girl in a small town wants to be the only one worth loving and I've always just had this champagne-bottle personality, unafraid to be soft. But girls took that from me, they really did. They hurt me until I had to toughen up. The best thing about being a woman is that, by now, I've learned how becoming even more like myself is more powerful than any tough exterior I could ever put on. They hate that. It really kills them.”

“It's unbearable that the sun rises again, that Maya is here and not Benji, for the rest of her life she will stop almost daily and think: "Would he be proud of me? Have I lived a worthy life? Been a good enough person?" Because of course that's all she is, all everyone she grew up with in Beartown is: hopelessly simple but horribly complicated. Ordinary, unusual people. Unusually ordinary people. We try to just live our lives, live with each other, live with ourselves. Accepting joy when we find it, bearing grief when it finds us, and being amazed at our children's happiness without falling apart when we think that we can never really protect them.”

“It's unfair." As a rule, life is unfair," I said. Yeah, but I think I did say some awful things." To Dick?" Yeah." I pulled the car over to the shoulder of the road and turned off the ignition. "That's just stupid, that kind of thinking," I said, nailing her with my eyes. "Instead of regretting what you did, you could have treated him decently from the beginning. You could've tried to be fair. But you didn't. You don't even have the right to be sorry.”

“It’s unfair to see managers buying brand new cars for themselves when the salaries of their workers still remain unpaid! Good leaders are not selfish thinkers!”

“It’s unfortunate that inflated self-worth is being mistaken for confidence when it’s really an indication of the opposite. True confidence is reflected through humility, vulnerability and kindness. It’s quiet. It’s subtle. It does not overwhelm. It does not shrink others down to elevate oneself and it doesn’t not knock others down to give the illusion of being above.”

“It’s unsettling when you read a story about anthropomorphic animals, and the animals can’t decide whether or not they wear clothing. (Note that Catterton cats aren’t anthropomorphic; they’re simply cats themselves.) You sit there asking yourself, “For heaven’s sake, do these animals have a sense of modesty? If some are clothed, are the others considered naked?”

“It’s unthinkable, now to live as her parents had done, going to work from nine to five and enjoying the benefits of the newly-formed health and education services. What paradise it had seemed! Now, in order to pay their exorbitant mortgages, and ever more exorbitant fuel prices, British adults have to work long hours – the longest, it is said, in Europe… Everyone they know, everyone they see, is just like them, living in houses like these, reading the same papers, seeing the same films and TV programmes and plays, buying from the same shops and sending their children to the same schools; and they think it will go on for ever, either ever-mounting property prices cushioning them. But it can’t.”