“Sebald understands that a life is an edifice, which we build partly to hide its foundations.”
– James Meek, “W.G. Sebald, Humorist,” The New Yorker June 5 & 12 2017
Category Archives: Quotes
For We Are Where We Are Not
“Car nous sommes où nous ne sommes pas.”
– Pierre-Jean Jouve, Lyrique
Full of Empty Seats
“I become aware of myself, too close, like a stranger sitting down right next to me in a train carriage full of empty seats.”
– Rachel Cusk, Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation, 2012
The Saying is a Kind of Working Out
“He says, sometimes you say things before you’ve understood them yourself. For you the saying is a kind of working out, he says, like doing a sum on a bit of paper.”
– Rachel Cusk, Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation, 2012
Always and Always Alone
“We are all animals, and therefore, we are continually being attracted. That this attraction should extend to what is called love is a human misfortune cultivated by novelists. It is the horror we feel of ourselves, that is of being alone with ourselves, which draws us to love, but this love should happen only once, and never be repeated, if we have, as we should, learnt our lesson, which is that we are, all and each one of us, always and always alone.”
– Henry Green, Letter to G.W. 9 June 1954
Writing is the Stigmata
“Writing is the stigma that the writer bears…that there’s something wrong with you.”
– Rachel Cusk at Green Apple Books on the Park, San Francisco, 25 January 2017
Illuminated Squares
“Through tree-lined streets, past the terraced houses, I float, catching glimpses of those other, happier, families through the illuminated squares of their little brick boxes.”
– Viv Albertine, Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys (2014)
