“For a long time he stood at the window looking at the shining rails. They had always fascinated him. Squinting a little he saw them stretch away to infinity, carrying him off to his rediscovered youth.”

—  Gabrielle Roy , book The Tin Flute

Source: The Tin Flute (1945), P.371

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "For a long time he stood at the window looking at the shining rails. They had always fascinated him. Squinting a little…" by Gabrielle Roy?
Gabrielle Roy photo
Gabrielle Roy 40
French Canadian fiction writer 1909–1983

Related quotes

Orson Pratt photo

“[T]he heavens were opened, and two personages clothed in light or fire descended and stood before him. As soon as this light surrounded him, and he was enclosed or enveloped in it, his mind was caught away from earthly objects and things, and he saw these two glorious personages, their countenances shining with exceeding great brilliancy. One of them, while pointing to the other, addressed him in this language, "Behold my beloved son, hear ye him."”

Orson Pratt (1811–1881) Apostle of the LDS Church

Journal of Discourses 15:181 (September 22, 1872).
Joseph Smith Jr.'s First Vision

David Levithan photo

“I saw his scars - the visible ones-and saw how breaking him had not made him any less beautiful. If anything, he stood stronger, because he'd survived.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Invisibility

Arundhati Roy photo

“When she looked at him now, she couldn't help thinking that the man he had become bore so little resemblance to the boy he had been. His smile was the only piece of baggage he had carried with him from boyhood into manhood.”

Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things

Source: The God of Small Things

Richard Wright photo

“He had lived and acted on the assumption that he was alone, and now he saw that he had not been. What he had done made others suffer. No matter how much he would long for them to forget him, they would not be able to. His family was a part of him, not only in blood, but in spirit.”

Richard Wright (1908–1960) African-American writer

Native Son (1940)

André Aciman photo

“He was waiting for me to say something. He was staring at me. This, I think, is the first time I dared myself to stare back at him. Usually, I'd cast a glance and then look away—look away because I didn't want to swim in the lovely, clear pool of his eyes unless I'd been invited to—and I never waited long enough to know whether I was even wanted there; look away because I was too scared to stare anyone back; look away because I didn't want to give anything away; look away because I couldn't acknowledge how much he mattered. Look away because that steely gaze of his always reminded me of how tall he stood and how far below him ranked.”

André Aciman book Call Me By Your Name

Part 2, p. 78
Call Me By Your Name (2007)

Kenneth Grahame photo

“Toad saw that he was trapped. They understood him, they saw through him, they had got ahead of him. His pleasant dream was shattered.”

Kenneth Grahame book The Wind in the Willows

Source: The Wind in the Willows (1908), Ch. 12

Flannery O’Connor photo

“He had the feeling that everything he saw was a broken-off piece of some giant blank thing that he had forgotten had happened to him.”

Flannery O’Connor book Wise Blood

Source: Wise Blood

Karen Marie Moning photo

“I hammered him with my fists. He just stood and took it. He didn't suffer graciously, he looked pissed off to no end. But he let me hit him. And he didn't hit me back.”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

John Kennedy Toole photo

“The war had been on for quite a while now when Poppa got his notice from the draft. He didn't have to go, but he more or less enlisted. Mother and I and Aunt Mae went down to the train to see him off, and when he left he kissed Mother and he cried, and I'd never seen a man cry before. The train pulled away, and we stood there and watched it go, and Mother kept looking long after it had passed around the hill.”

John Kennedy Toole book The Neon Bible

Source: The Neon Bible, Ch. 4, opening paragraph.

P. D. Ouspensky photo

“The fool always carries them, although he has long since forgotten what they mean. Nevertheless they belong to him, even though he does not know their use.”

P. D. Ouspensky (1878–1947) Russian esotericist

Card 0 : The Fool
The Symbolism of the Tarot (1913)
Context: "What has he in the bag?" I inquired, not knowing why I asked. And after a long silence the voice replied: "The four magic symbols, the sceptre, the cup, the sword and the pentacle. The fool always carries them, although he has long since forgotten what they mean. Nevertheless they belong to him, even though he does not know their use. The symbols have not lost their power, they retain it in themselves.

Related topics