Emily Fridlund > Quotes

“Maybe if I’d been someone else I’d see it differently. But isn’t that the crux of the problem? Wouldn’t we all act differently if we were someone else?”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“Winter collapsed on us that year. It knelt, exhausted, and stayed.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“I didn’t need to think of myself as a walleye drifting along in a current somewhere, just waiting for my hook. I was yearning for it. *”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“Later, I could get that drizzle feeling just about any time I saw a kid on a swing. The hopelessness of it—the forward excitement, the midflight return. The futile belief that the next time around, the next flight forward, you wouldn’t get dragged back again. You wouldn’t have to start over, and over.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“By their nature, it came to me, children were freaks. They believed impossible things to suit themselves, thought their fantasies were the center of the world. They were the best kinds of quacks, if that’s what you wanted—pretenders who didn’t know they were pretending at all.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“Maybe there is a way to climb above everything, some special ladder or insight, some optical vantage point that allows a clear, unobstructed view of things.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“It seemed unfair to me that people couldn't be something else just by working at it hard, by saying it over and over.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“You know how summer goes. You yearn for it and yearn for it, but there’s always something wrong.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“You can see eleven stars appear over the horizon if you don't look for more.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“Heaven and hell are ways of thinking. Death is the false belief that anything could ever end.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“I’ve found that some people who’ve done something bad will just go ahead and condemn everyone else around
them to avoid feeling shitty themselves. As if that even works. Other types of people, and I’m not saying you’re
this, necessarily, but I’m just putting it out there, will defend people like me on principle because when their
turns come around, they want that so badly for themselves.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“Later when I woke up, I found Patra had curled up around Paul. Back to me. But I could feel her curved spine through her jacket when I pushed in closer, all those little vertebrae linked up, all those bones laid out, like a secret. The night had come down hard, finally. Thunder was rumbling far away. Wind had kicked up waves, and they were loud enough now that I could hear them on the shore of the lake, shoving pebbles forward and back. I could hear pine needles whipping the roof of the house. I could hear Paul and Patra, breathing in syncopation.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“Of course, things always seem more impressive when you’re a little kid. That’s one of the reasons I don’t really want to go back. I mean, who wants to ruin one of the things you like thinking about most? Who gives that up on purpose?”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“Nobody believes you when you talk about happiness”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“Her love for him has always been the underdog. She roots for it as if from a distance. She imagines what they must look like through the uncurtained window, the picture of tranquil domesticity they must now make. He smells like cilantro and beer, like curry and rain. And underneath that, he smells like himself, like nobody else, his body alarming because it is already so familiar.”
― Emily Fridlund, Catapult

“My wife could take your skin off with one glance, she was that excruciating. She could call you to her with one finger. She could do long division in her head. Another thing she could do really well was sob, and I envied her this, assuming it left nothing to eat at her inside.”
― Emily Fridlund, Catapult

“He said if he were lucky enough to get back to the car, it would be because of Lily's kindness and mercy. He wanted her to know how grateful he was—in advance. Before he unzipped his pants, before he said just a kiss and pushed her down, he wanted her to know she had a choice.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“Without saying a word, Lily could make people feel encouraged, blessed. She had dimples on her cheeks, nipples that flashed like signs from God through her sweater. I was flat chested, plain as a banister. I made people feel judged.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“My mother believed in God, but grudgingly, like a grounded daughter.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“This is how you keep a best friend: you talk out of guilt, you live in separate states. Again and again, you vow fidelity to her in fits of absurd hopefulness. It is the same as being in love.”
― Emily Fridlund, Catapult

“This was the best and worst thing about my wife: she felt sorry for me. When I put my work boots on the mantel or fell asleep on her side of the bed, she'd groan and clench her teeth. She'd kiss me, long and deep, a sigh of disappointment.”
― Emily Fridlund, Catapult

“You know how summer goes. You yearn for it and yearn for it, but there's always something wrong. Everywhere you look, there are insects thickening the air, and birds rifling trees, and enormous, heavy leaves dragging down branches. You want to trammel it, wreck it, smash things down. The afternoons are so fat and long. You want to see if anything you do matters.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“He was wearing his black slippers, I saw, so he was the kind of man who packed slippers for a night in a hotel. He was a man who couldn’t be without slippers, which made me sad and maybe a little repulsed by him.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“With most people in my life, I come to the end of myself pretty fast. I walk to my borders--where there's dinner on a dropleaf table, maybe small talk or sex--then wave politely and turn back.”
― Emily Fridlund, Catapult

“Nothing is something after all. There’s math that proves this, of course, but also observations. I know it seems like math and observations are opposites.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“You know how summer goes. You yearn for it and yearn for it, but there's always something wrong. Everywhere you look, there are insects thickening the air, and birds rifling the trees, and enormous, heavy leaves dragging down branches. You want to trammel it, wreck it, smash things down. THe afternoons are so fat and long . You want to see if anything you do matters.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“He wore a candy-cane scarf and a red pom-pom hat. Every time the wind started up, his pom bounced on the air like a bobber.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“My father is a good man, but what do you do with all the good men in the world? There are too many already. Sometimes you want someone less good.”
― Emily Fridlund, Catapult

“It seemed unfair to me that people couldn’t be something else just by working at it hard, by saying it over and over.”
― Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves

“I tried to concentrate, but I didn't like how Noah's family was looking at me so long, hoping so hard that I was sweet and harmless and possibly Christian.”
― Emily Fridlund, Catapult