xy

@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023

Favourite quotes (21448)

“You can't undo the past but you can certainly not repeat it.”

Bruce Willis (1955) American actor, producer, and musician

US Magazine. Issue 249.

“My life, the most truthful one, is unrecognizable, extremely interior, and there is no single word that gives it meaning.”

Clarice Lispector book The Hour of the Star

The Hour of the Star (1977)

“At first she dreamed of sheep, of going to school, of cats drinking milk. Little by little she dreamed of blue sheep, of going to school in the middle of the woods, of cats drinking milk from golden saucers. And her dreams became increasingly dense and acquired colours that were difficult to dilute into words.”

Clarice Lispector book Near to the Wild Heart

Near to the Wild Heart (1943), p. 43

“Whether she won or lost, she would continue to wrestle with life. It would not be with her own life alone but with all of life. Something had finally been released within her. And there it was, the sea.”

Clarice Lispector (1920–1977) Brazilian writer

An Apprenticeship, or The Book of Delights (1968)

“Was that, then, the way we do things? "Not knowing"— was that the way the most profound things happened?… Was the secret of never escaping from the greater life the secret of living like a sleepwalker?”

Clarice Lispector (1920–1977) Brazilian writer

The Passion According to G.H. (1964), p. 159

“Reality prior to my language exists as an unthinkable thought.... life precedes love, bodily matter precedes the body, and one day in its turn language shall have preceded possession of silence.”

Clarice Lispector (1920–1977) Brazilian writer

The Passion According to G.H. (1964), p. 169

“Living leaves me atremble.”

Clarice Lispector (1920–1977) Brazilian writer

“But don't forget, in the meantime, that this is the season for strawberries. Yes.”

Clarice Lispector book The Hour of the Star

Source: The Hour of the Star

“I work only with lost and founds.”

Clarice Lispector (1920–1977) Brazilian writer

“But I welcome the darkness where the two eyes of that soft panther glow. The darkness is my cultural broth. The enchanted darkness. I go on speaking to you, risking disconnection: I’m subterraneously unattainable because of what I know.”

Clarice Lispector (1920–1977) Brazilian writer

Source: The Stream of Life

“It is because I dove into the abyss that I am beginning to love the abyss I am made of.”

Clarice Lispector (1920–1977) Brazilian writer

“No it is not easy to write. It is as hard as breaking rocks. Sparks and splinters fly like shattered steel.”

Clarice Lispector book The Hour of the Star

Source: The Hour of the Star

“How was she to tie herself to a man without permitting him to imprison her? And was there some means of acquiring things without those things possessing her?”

Clarice Lispector book Near to the Wild Heart

Source: Near to the Wild Heart

“I write as if to save somebody’s life. Probably my own. Life is a kind of madness that death makes. Long live the dead because we live in them.”

Clarice Lispector book A Breath of Life

Source: A Breath of Life

“Love is now, is always. All that is missing is the coup de grâce- which is called passion.”

Clarice Lispector (1920–1977) Brazilian writer

“Ela acreditava em anjo e, porque acreditava, eles existiam" | "She believed in angels, and, because she believed, they existed”

Clarice Lispector book The Hour of the Star

Source: The Hour of the Star

“Do you ever suddenly find it strange to be yourself?”

Clarice Lispector book A Breath of Life

Source: A Breath of Life

“Do not mourn the dead. They know what they are doing.”

Clarice Lispector book The Hour of the Star

Source: The Hour of the Star

“I don't know what to do with the horrifying freedom that can destroy me.”

Clarice Lispector book The Passion According to G.H.

Source: The Passion According to G.H. (1964), p. 5

“I write and that way rid myself of me and then at last I can rest.”

Clarice Lispector (1920–1977) Brazilian writer