“Words exist only in theory. And then one ordinary day you run into a word that exists only in theory. And you meet it face to face. And then that word becomes someone you know. That word becomes someone you hate. And you take that word with you wherever you go. And you can’t pretend it isn’t there.”
- Benjamin Alire Sáenz, The Inexplicable Logic of My Life.
Category: words
“Fairy tales are women’s tales. They’re bent-backed crones’ tales, sly gossips’ tales, work-worn…”
“Fairy tales are women’s tales. They’re bent-backed crones’ tales, sly gossips’ tales, work-worn mothers’ tales and old wives’ tales. They’re stories shared, repeated and elaborated on over mindless women’s work like spinning or mending or shucking corn. These stories are the voices of those who were, within a social and cultural context, so often voiceless; they’re women’s whispered desires and fears, neatly wrapped up in fantastical narratives filled with sex, violence and humour. Fairy tales speak of the things that women most hoped for – a prince, a castle, a happy ending – and those that they were most afraid of – that their children would be taken from them, that men would hurt them or take advantage of them, that their family wouldn’t be provided for.”
- Anne Thériault, “Fairy Tales Are Women’s Tales”, pub. in The Toast.
- Anne Thériault, “Fairy Tales Are Women’s Tales”, pub. in The Toast.
“The Dark and Middle Ages! The Nineteenth Century had an impudent way with its labels. For there,…”
“The Dark and Middle Ages! The Nineteenth Century had an impudent way with its labels. For there, under the window in Arthur’s Gramarye, the sun’s rays flamed from a hundred jewels of stained glass in monasteries and convents or danced from the pinnacles of cathedrals and castles, which their builders had actually loved. […] Did you know that in these dark ages which were visible from Guenever’s window, there was so much decency in the world that the Catholic Church could impose a peace to all their fighting - which it called The Truce of God - and which lasted from Wednesday to Monday, as well as during the whole of Advent and Lent? Do you think that they, with their Battles, Famine, Black Death and Serfdom, were less enlightened than we are, with our Wars, Blockade, Influenza and Conscription? Even if they were foolish enough to believe that the earth was the centre of the universe, do we not ourselves believe that man is the fine flower of creation? If it takes a million years for a fish to become a reptile, has man, in our few hundred, altered out of recognition?”
- T.H. White, The Once and Future King.
- T.H. White, The Once and Future King.
“Every human being has a right to a fantasy, don’t they? It is one of the most important human rights…”
“Every human being has a right to a fantasy, don’t they? It is one of the most important human rights – it is what makes us different from animals.”
- Amitav Ghosh, Gun Island.
- Amitav Ghosh, Gun Island.
“My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends – It…”
“My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -
It gives a lovely light!”
- Edna St. Vincent Millay, from First Fig.
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -
It gives a lovely light!”
- Edna St. Vincent Millay, from First Fig.
“I am in, therefore, a time of mass apprehensions.”
“I am in, therefore, a time of mass apprehensions.”
- Simone White, from [“Hour in which I consider hydrangea”].
- Simone White, from [“Hour in which I consider hydrangea”].
“So I must give thee up – not with the glow Of those who losing much yet rather gain. But losing all….”
“So I must give thee up - not with the glow
Of those who losing much yet rather gain.
But losing all. Did never martyr go
Along the bleeding road of useless pain?
Did never one held prisoner by a creed,
Obsessed by stern heroic ghosts, made dumb
By those who answered duty to his need,
With faithless loathing feet to his fate come?”
- Dorothy Bonarjee, from Renunciation.
Of those who losing much yet rather gain.
But losing all. Did never martyr go
Along the bleeding road of useless pain?
Did never one held prisoner by a creed,
Obsessed by stern heroic ghosts, made dumb
By those who answered duty to his need,
With faithless loathing feet to his fate come?”
- Dorothy Bonarjee, from Renunciation.
“Dives, the rich man, knows and has always known how to pass off his interests as the interests of…”
“Dives, the rich man, knows and has always known how to pass off his interests as the interests of Lazarus, the beggar.”
- Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light.
- Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light.
“Think of this—that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and they were alone with each…”
“Think of this—that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and they were alone with each other.”
- A.S. Byatt, Possession.
- A.S. Byatt, Possession.
“Captain Vimes believed in logic, in much the same way as a man in a desert believed in ice –i.e., it…”
“Captain Vimes believed in logic, in much the same way as a man in a desert believed in ice –i.e., it was something he really needed, but this just wasn’t the world for it.”
- Terry Pratchett, Theatre of Cruelty.
- Terry Pratchett, Theatre of Cruelty.