Jill Ciment > Quotes

“If you look closely you'll find all my lovers inscribed on my skin.”
― Jill Ciment, The Tattoo Artist

“The greatness of the tattoo artist lies in her ability to gauge the degree to which she can push her art before the art kills the canvas.”
― Jill Ciment, The Tattoo Artist

“During her lectures, she explains the difference between the beautiful and the sublime this way: The stars are beautiful—diamonds, twinkles, something you can wish upon. The space in between the stars is the sublime—cold, black, and infinite, something that inspires awe and fear.”
― Jill Ciment, The Body in Question

“Old age robs you of every last illusion, even the belief in your own goodness.”
― Jill Ciment, Heroic Measures

“Grief doesn’t feel as if a rug has been pulled out from under her. There is no rug. There is no floor on which to lay a rug. There is no ground on which to build a floor to lay a rug.”
― Jill Ciment, The Body in Question

“She could stand to think that life’s experiences, good and bad, died with the body, but she couldn’t bear to believe that the dreams vanished too, those exquisite flights of reverie that never actually happened. All those experiences you can have for free. How could they burn and turn to ash? She would disappear one day, too, both her flesh and the woman she dreamed herself to be.”
― Jill Ciment, Act of God

“One of them is going to tell the judge for the same reason children always tattle to the teacher. For attention and a gold star.”
― Jill Ciment, The Body in Question

“To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others.”
― Jill Ciment, Consent: A Memoir

“You either photograph what you know, or you photograph what you want to know. But the giants photograph what they don’t want to know.”
― Jill Ciment, The Body in Question

“wanted to live in the dark as a teenager until I realized that ugliness already makes you invisible,”
― Jill Ciment, The Body in Question

“Darkness isn't a hole you hide in; it's the cosmos.”
― Jill Ciment, Act of God

“she explains the difference between the beautiful and the sublime this way: The stars are beautiful—diamonds, twinkles, something you can wish upon. The space in between the stars is the sublime—cold, black, and infinite, something that inspires awe and fear.”
― Jill Ciment, The Body in Question

“The stars are beautiful—diamonds, twinkles, something you can wish upon. The space in between the stars is the sublime—cold, black, and infinite, something that inspires awe and fear.”
― Jill Ciment, The Body in Question

“What good was beauty with no one to share it? Alone, beauty was almost cruel.”
― Jill Ciment, Act of God

“Seeing how a hand carves out meaning with a pencil point lets us remember that the human touch is essential.”
― Jill Ciment, Act of God

“Dawn was her favorite time of day. Sunrise made no promises. A bright young beginning didn’t necessarily foretell a glorious evening, nor did a dark and livid start mean a stormy afternoon.”
― Jill Ciment, Act of God

“Darkness isn’t a hole you hide in; it’s the cosmos.”
― Jill Ciment, Act of God

“When someone asks you about your future, it is make-believe, science fiction. But when someone asks you about your past, your story becomes a mystery. Having a secret that someone else wants is powerful.”
― Jill Ciment, Consent: A Memoir

“They still have sex, but nothing she would have called, at sixteen, “all the way.” He doesn’t so much possess her as haunt her. At the best of times, she can still marvel at how intrepidly he wants sex. Potency, technique, performance have been replaced by something more basic—the will to live while alive. His height and mass may have lessened with age, but his life force has only grown denser and more combustible. Their lovemaking doesn’t pivot on potency and technique; it does something far more intimate and abiding. It slays C-2.”
― Jill Ciment, The Body in Question

“The stupid girl thinks Muslim is a language.”
― Jill Ciment, Heroic Measures

“It was as close as I had ever come to having power over someone, and I equated it with love.”
― Jill Ciment, The Tattoo Artist