Linn Ullmann > Quotes

“What I have always loved most in men is imperfection.”
― Linn Ullmann

“In order to write about real people - parents, children, lovers, friends, enemies, brothers, uncles, or the occasional passerby - it is necessary to make them fictional. I believe this is the only way of breathing life into them. To remember is to look around, again and again, equally astonished every time.”
― Linn Ullmann, Unquiet

“Jag vill inte dö, jag vill leva, men om hon dör finns det ingen plats för mig i den här världen.”
― Linn Ullmann, De urolige

“Her deepest longing, perhaps, was to be loved unconditionally, and at the same time be left in peace. But she never told anyone. It is shameful and egotistical to hope for unconditional love and at the same time want to be left in peace. The mother’s inner worlds were neatly sealed—dark, gilded worlds.”
― Linn Ullmann, Unquiet

“Her deepest longing, perhaps, was to be loved unconditionally, and at the same time be left in peace.”
― Linn Ullmann, Unquiet

“My father had the rare ability to make others feel as though they were the one and only. That they were seen, heard, chosen. He would take you by the hand and say, Come with me, and for a brief or a long moment you might think you were the first person he has ever said this to. That it was you and him against the world.”
― Linn Ullmann, Unquiet

“A man wakes up and for a few moments he experiences everything exactly as it is. Jon wrote: A man wakes up and is lucid. It doesn’t last long, though, he thought, that kind of lucidity. If it did you wouldn’t be able to stand it, it would kill you. Let”
― Linn Ullmann, The Cold Song: A Novel

“Occasionally, for a fleeting, horrified moment, she caught a glimpse of herself. The shrill note in her voice. The stupid words. It was as if there were something heavy weighing on her tongue that had to be removed immediately—that expression, It’s time I took matters in hand, uttered in such a phony way—and out of her mouth she plucked a big, shiny bug. And then another. And one more. Her mouth full of big, shiny bugs.”
― Linn Ullmann, The Cold Song: A Novel

“It’s from Strindberg’s novella Alone,” he added, “and I’m going to begin in the middle of a sentence, I think Jenny would have liked that.” He smiled. And then he read: “I had, however, noted that we were not so quick to smile as before and that we observed a certain care in our speech. We had discovered the weight and the worth of the spoken word. Life had certainly not mellowed our judgment, but wisdom had eventually taught us that all one’s words come back to one; furthermore we had come to see that men cannot be described in full tones, but that one must also use halftones in order to express as accurately as possible one’s opinion of a person.” After”
― Linn Ullmann, The Cold Song: A Novel

“Om man vill vara högtidlig, kan man säga att jag hade hittat hem, har han sagt, och om man vill vara lustig, kan man tala om kärlek vid första ögonkastet.”
― Linn Ullmann, Unquiet

“Her deepest longing, perhaps, was to be loved unconditionally, and at the same time be left in peace. But she never told anyone. It is shameful and egotistical to hope for unconditional love and at the same time want to be left in peace.”
― Linn Ullmann, Unquiet