Alex Dahl > Quotes

“frightening and painful memories hurt much less when we bring them into the light and give them a little bit of our attention, but not too much. Acknowledge them and accept that they cannot be changed, then let them go.”
― Alex Dahl, The Boy at the Door

“I am not what happened to me, but what I choose to become”
― Alex Dahl, Cabin Fever

“Looking at my sleeping husband, I feel a sliver of fear run through me for how little we actually know of another person, how little we can ever know of what goes on inside their head. Life, and love, are like therapy sessions at the end of the day - we only know what someone says and shows.  But what about the things they choose to hide, and go to great lengths to keep hidden?”
― Alex Dahl, Cabin Fever

“Sometimes, in life-changing moments, we are afforded at least a few minutes to contemplate the stakes before making those crucial calls that can alter the very course of our lives, but other times, a moment's hesitation will give it all away.”
― Alex Dahl, The Boy at the Door

“It feels surreal that out of the three young girls who once did everything together and embarked on what was supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime, I'm the only one still alive. You have to live for all three of you”
― Alex Dahl, Cabin Fever

“It's always loss, isn't it, that destabilizes everything and makes all the bricks inside of you come tumbling down. It's always the beginning or end of love that changes everything, that makes all the difference between happy and sad, capable and completely incapable.”
― Alex Dahl, The Boy at the Door

“Someone once told me that when it comes to writing, you start off with an earthquake and then work your way up to the climax”
― Alex Dahl, Cabin Fever

“Something we have in common, you and I, is living a lie. And when you live in the shadow of one lie, you build more and more lies around that lie until nothing is true or real”
― Alex Dahl, Cabin Fever

“If my life has taught me one thing, it's this - don't look back and don't look ahead, just do your best right now.”
― Alex Dahl, The Boy at the Door

“Kristina Moss, the mind doctor who was saved by the dysfunction of her own mind”
― Alex Dahl, Cabin Fever

“I want to tell him that I need him here, that I'm afraid of being alone with the strange boy, of what this all means. But how do we ever tell anyone that we need them? I want him to know that inside of me there is a gash so deep and so black that it holds me in a perennial iron grip of anxiety and terror, and that it has been like that for a very long time.”
― Alex Dahl, The Boy at the Door

“Selma great comfort. There’s a”
― Alex Dahl, Playdate

“Eirik's decision to go from international corporate law into politics was a joint decision and I knew full well that it would be demanding on our marriage. Or did I, really? There are so many things in life we can only truly understand once we're actually living and feeling them”
― Alex Dahl, Cabin Fever

“Haven't you always said to me that the truth is never ugly, unlike lies, and that we will live better if we live by it?”
― Alex Dahl, Cabin Fever

“I just want to be away. Away. Faster, better, more. Away. I live my life wanting to be somewhere other than where I am.”
― Alex Dahl, Cabin Fever

“You're in the woods, You're alone. You've never known aloneness like this before, but now that you do, it will remain beside you like an unshakable shadow for the rest of your life. So much will be lost in the far recesses of your mind; no life can ever be retained in all of its moments, but you will remember this - the bitter, sickly taste of blood in your mouth, the thousand shades of green enveloping you, the taste, and color, of death. The deafening rumble of your heart echoing through your blood. The sharp-edged leaves knifing your arms and face as you crash through the foliage. Your fear - this vast and uncontrollable fear, as black and deep as a Norwegian forest lake.  It will surge through you forever, prompted by big and small triggers entirely unrelated to these moments, and you'll learn to live with it; you'll have to.”
― Alex Dahl, Cabin Fever

“When did I know that my life as I knew it was breaking apart? I don't remember the day my father left, or my mother's face when she told me. When did I become who I am now? Was my future persona added to childhood Cecilia layer by layer, like brush strokes to an oil painting? Or, did one Cecilia become another as a result of certain episodes? And if so, which episodes were the most influential?”
― Alex Dahl, The Boy at the Door