Cora Sandel > Quotes

“The truth was Alberta only knew what she did not want. She had no idea what she did want. And not knowing brought unrest and a giddy sensation under her heart. She existed like a negative of herself, and this flaw was added to all the others.
To get away, out into the world! Beyond this all details were blurred. She imagined somewhere open, free, bathed in sunshine. And a throng of people, none of them her relatives, none of whom could criticize her appearance and character, and to whom she was not responsible for being other than herself.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Jacob

“For her too, she had words on her lips, which died unborn, lay in her mind and turned to poison.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Freedom

“One was always met by a gust of greyness and narrow circumstances.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Freedom

“But Alberta sat there wretchedly. God knows who put the words into her mouth. They were not her own. They were foreign to her, stupid words behind which she hid herself. Her own never saw the light of day, they died unborn or withered on her tongue and were born distorted. She was disabled, she was without the use of speech, she would die of muteness.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Jacob

“Old repressed antipathy stirred in her. She had a rooted fear of rooms full of objects. They weighed on down and held one there, exerting force and discipline. Anyone married to all this was truly to be pitied.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Freedom

“Sometimes Alberta felt as if there were a conspiracy against her, as if the whole world were in agreement not to say a word. A foolish desire to shake people – But speak out, can’t you – would come over her. If she did not do so, it was because we really can remain on the verge of action for a long time without doing anything.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Freedom

“There was something she should have experienced, something besides this. There was a path somewhere that she could not find. It was and it was not her own fault.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Freedom

“Alberta had always had many forms of idling. She frittered away her time with virtuosity.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Freedom

“Jacob was to travel second class. This alone was inexpressibly tragic.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Jacob

“She laced up her shoes and put on her coat, bracing herself as she got ready to leave, trying to find that feeling of freedom which, like an intoxication, can sometimes turn walking into a dance, reminding herself that now and again one lands on small islands of joy. Of course they would get somewhere, not just Liesel, but herself too. It was already something of a feat not to be lying becalmed in quite the wrong place--and after all, this was life, life itself, irreplaceable.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Freedom

“Det gjelder å komme på det rene med hvor i tiden man er.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Jacob

“La vida no repara en exigencias, no se inhibe y no tiene en consideración las capacidades de cada uno.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Jacob

“En stor forlatthetsfølelse, noe i retning av hva eneste overlevende etter en katastrofe på havet kan tenkes å kjenne, isner Alberte. Hennes hjerte trekker seg sammen til en liten hard og hamrende klump, men hun skyter opp i livet, og går på av alle krefter i dypsneen. Høyt oppskjørtet, rød og het, inn i uhyggen. Hun flykter fra sin egen evige misdederfornemmelse, fra den smertelige bevissthet om sin egen person som aldri forlater henne, og hun har ingen andre steder å flykte hen.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Jacob

“One morning there was newly fallen snow in the mountains. It lay halfway down them, and a raw cold, naked and biting, set in from above. It arrived in the night and dug its claws into Alberta, gripping her from behind between her shoulder blades and buckling her tightly into the old enforced position with her legs drawn up and her arms crossed over her breast, keeping her awake for hours. Now she wrapped herself in a nightgown again, shivering and quaking, with the prospect of her own greyish-violet winter face in the mirror.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Jacob

“It placed its finger roughly on sore places.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Jacob

“It was not altogether easy when one's daughters were too gifted, it really wasn't. Mrs. Lossius nodded in the direction of Harriet, who, well brought up and virtuous, was busy with the coffee kettle. "You can be glad, Mrs Pram, that your daughters are not gifted in any particular direction.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Jacob

“Alberta was back again. Back to it all, to all that was warped and desultory, to the lies and evasions and small, hidden irons in the fire, to humiliation and hopeless longing, to the grey road of uniform days.
To live in spite of it, to live on as best she could, with her two warring natures: one that willed, no-one knew how far - one that could let itself be bound any time and anywhere. To live and lie and listen her way forward, to seek haphazardly in her tomes, to wait and see...”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Jacob

“For a moment they all stood silent. The departure of this autumn ship gave rise to many different thoughts. Something came out of hiding in the most hardened.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Jacob

“She had some kind of foolish and unreasonable notion that the more doggedly she stood, the more would she placate certain mysterious powers which habitually force us into circumstances and situations we hate and abhor.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Freedom

“It's dangerous to deal with words. In addition the author risks being flayed and stuffed after death by any little youthful and self-assured doctor of literature.”
― Cora Sandel

“Alberta felt her face grow old and shrivelled at her own words. She was a shadow already, half old, distressing, comic. Something happened from year to year, suspicion became knowledge, bad dreams reality.
A weariness crept over her, more intense and pervasive than any she had known before. It sat in her back, sapping her strength. She sank down into it as if it were an abyss, sank inwards into gaping emptiness.”
― Cora Sandel, Alberta and Jacob