Morgan Pager > Quotes

“Time and repetition have dissolved the words from a segment of story into an indiscernible pattern of lines and curves.”
― Morgan Pager, The Art of Vanishing

“Unspoken secrets swirling around us in the evening air next to my unreciprocated confession of love.”
― Morgan Pager, The Art of Vanishing

“I wondered if I was already in love with her, laughing at myself as the thought entered and exited my mind.”
― Morgan Pager, The Art of Vanishing

“We kissed like we were doing it for the first time, sloppy with enthusiasm, not a drip of self-consciousness.”
― Morgan Pager, The Art of Vanishing

“There was no respite; it was me and my wild emotions and little else. I never needed to be alone with my thoughts again. And yet there was no end in sight.
Barring the museum reopening, which didn't seem to be anywhere on the horizon, I couldn't see a way out. I was trapped.”
― Morgan Pager, The Art of Vanishing

“I admired that piece of Marguerite, her ability to make life a thing she wanted to live. I was paralyzed, waiting for my purpose to come and find me. She sought hers without needing anyone's permission.”
― Morgan Pager, The Art of Vanishing

“I've always felt people expect too much from the experience of looking at a painting. They think if the meaning of life doesn't leap off the canvas and into their minds, they're not doing it right or, worse, the art has failed them and the whole thing's been a waste. Who says a painting is supposed to do all that work for you? You look at it and you see what you see and you feel what you feel, and it might be transcendent or it might be just another moment in your life and all those things are okay.”
― Morgan Pager, The Art of Vanishing

“Before Claire, I'd romanticized my loneliness. I had no one, but I needed no one. I was most myself when I was alone.
I'd made it my prevailing personality trait.
Today and every day now, my loneliness felt oppressive. It threatened to crush me, and I didn't have it in me to get out of its way.”
― Morgan Pager, The Art of Vanishing

“I've always felt people expect too much from the experience of looking at a painting. They think if the meaning of life doesn't leap off the canvas and into their minds, they're not doing it right or, worse, the art has failed them and the whole thing's been a waste. Who says a painting is supposed to do all that work for you? You look at it and you see what you see and you feel what you feel, and it might be transcendent, or it might be just another moment in your life and all those things are okay.”
― Morgan Pager, The Art of Vanishing

“What some might call immortal and others might call stuck, we simply called life. This was our reality. We matured, but we didn't age.”
― Morgan Pager, The Art of Vanishing

“In my chair on the other side of the room, I'd been given solitude. I'd made that a part of my personality for so long, I'd forgotten it was never my choice in the first place.”
― Morgan Pager, The Art of Vanishing

“Obviously, art does not have to all make perfect sense. There's a tension in this painting, between the order and the chaos of the world Matisse has built. With so many little puzzle pieces such as these, I can't ignore this question of what does the artist want us to notice or to know about this space that exists ever so slightly outside the bounds of reality?”
― Morgan Pager, The Art of Vanishing

“Before Claire, I'd romanticized my loneliness. I had no one, but I needed no one. I was most myself when I was alone. I'd made it my prevailing personality trait. Today and every day now, my loneliness felt oppressive. It threatened to crush me, and I didn't have it in me to get out of its way.”
― Morgan Pager, The Art of Vanishing

“You've always been overwhelmingly stuck in your own head. I don't always have such clearly identified motives. I just do what I like, within reason of course. We have so little choice, those of us who live in this way. I like to take what power I have when I can.”
― Morgan Pager, The Art of Vanishing

“There was no respite; it was me and my wild emotions and little else. I never needed to be alone with my thoughts again. And yet there was no end in sight. Barring the museum reopening, which didn't seem to be anywhere on the horizon, I couldn't see a way out. I was trapped.”
― Morgan Pager, The Art of Vanishing

“You can’t wait around for life to reveal what it’s supposed to be. It just is what it is. And if you want something else, you have to take it.”
― Morgan Pager, The Art of Vanishing