Lina Wolff > Quotes

“To determine what someone reads is to shape them.”
― Lina Wolff, Carnality: A Novel

“I had done things I shouldn’t have done, and when you’ve done things you shouldn’t, you can’t afford to be picky. You have to grab whatever bits of rope come your way and allow the hand that reaches out to you to haul you up.”
― Lina Wolff, Carnality: A Novel

“Ada rose even more in my estimation at that. I realized she had got completely lost in the male narrative and her mind, which had to be both sensitive and sharp, had been absorbing fragments of it here and there and compiling them into a logical account of herself. The holy Madonna cannot simply have sex in its most basic form. The act must, of course, lead to something magnificent.”
― Lina Wolff, Köttets tid

“She doesn’t think, as in retrospect she should have, that people only know others through themselves, so if you’re worried that your partner will take up with someone else while you’re not around, then you’re likely to do the same.”
― Lina Wolff, The Devil's Grip

“Det krever en enorm beherskelse å tøyle virkelig begjær, i tilfelle du ikke vet det. Og man må ikke tro at man blir sterkere om man klarer å gjøre det. Eller man blir kanskje sterk, men man blir også tørr, tørr som et papirark. Man mister intimiteten, og intimiteten er åren til livets kilde.”
― Lina Wolff, De polyglotta älskarna

“Og ropet er en befaling, stemmen er en stemme som har tapt alle slag, men som har reist seg og vet at den nå kommer til å bli adlydd, for når man har tapt alle slag og likevel reiser seg, da er det for å bli adlydd.”
― Lina Wolff, De polyglotta älskarna

“Italy, she thinks, Italy. Everything else is irrelevant.”
― Lina Wolff, The Devil's Grip

“I’m only thirty-two,” she says. The woman chuckles. “Then you’re on the brink.” “Of what?” “The abyss.”
― Lina Wolff, The Devil's Grip

“Being a man, she thinks as she watches him sitting there, is like living in Guatemala. No seasons, no cycles, no swings—just sun and stasis in the body, seventy-seven degrees all year round. Being a man is like being a stowaway on the upper deck and simply enjoying the view. As for a woman, she’s struggling in the Arctic on a sputtering ship, its engines threatening to deadlock any second now, all the while she hopes that an iceberg won’t block her progress so she can keep sailing along for another few sea miles at a decent speed.”
― Lina Wolff, The Devil's Grip

“I’ve been having a difficult time because being a person is difficult and the choices you make are often the wrong ones, but then again incredible things sometimes happen, like the chance to make a fresh start.”
― Lina Wolff, Carnality: A Novel

“If you really want a good relationship with a man, you have to worship his dick.”
― Lina Wolff, The Devil's Grip

“Each year spent somewhere other than Italy is a waste of time, a waste of life.”
― Lina Wolff, The Devil's Grip

“So they weren’t trying to kill each other, she realizes, they wanted to kill us. And this is the devil’s grip, she also realizes, that’s what is releasing now, now that it’s too late the grip is releasing, it’s releasing right now, because she senses the words coming back to her, suddenly she can once again perform her recitations, è la presa del diavolo, es el agarre del diablo, the words have come back to her because the grip has been released.”
― Lina Wolff, The Devil's Grip

“Men lie to protect. They think they're protecting the world around them by keeping the truth of themselves from it. And considering their true nature, you can't blame them.”
― Lina Wolff, De polyglotta älskarna

“The sun rises and sets. As it sets, it lingers a while on the horizon like a malevolent fiery eye, only to then be swallowed by the sea.”
― Lina Wolff, The Devil's Grip

“There is no demon. There are only people. Confused, stressed, and thoughtless people, people who seek relief through their lust, their violence, their egoism, and their sickness. That’s all there is. No demon, no devil’s lair, just the two of you, the two of you acting like two monsters, nothing more. People, only people!”
― Lina Wolff, The Devil's Grip

“Besides, the thing about awards is that when you get one, the award also seems to get you.”
― Lina Wolff, Carnality: A Novel

“Den manliga galenskapen [...] kan nästan alltid härledas till antingen demens, eller geni. Därtill följer den vissa mönster av upphöjdhet som ofta bottnar i fåfänga och ofta blir monotona i ländgen. Den kvinnliga galenskapen däremot, är helt annorlunda. Den besitter något vidsträckt, och den verkar kunna anta ett oändligt antal olika skepnader. Det finns elasticitet i den, en elasticitet som påminner om kvinnokroppen i sig. Den typ av mörker som kan ta kvinnor i besittning är oändligt mycket mer krävande än det mörker som gör anspråk på männen. Och många kvinnor verkar på något sätt vara villiga att föda fram detta mörker! Jag tror det har den de extatiska aspekterna av en förlossning att göra. Kvinnor vet i sitt kött vilken glädje lidandet kan frambringa, och därför blir de mer öppna än män inför alla typer av gränstillstånd. Det är som de litar på lidandets positiva kraft.”
― Lina Wolff, De polyglotta älskarna

“Hennes själ kan skrika högt att hon ska springa därifrån, lägga benen på ryggen och fly, men köttet lyder inte själen. Köttet går sin egen väg och eftersom det är köttet som är materien är det bara för själen att följa med.
Efteråt vet hon alltid att hon har förlorat något. Som om hon gått runt med smutsiga skor i sina inre rum. Ett svagt drag i vänster bröstmuskel. Hon förlorar en del av sin själ varje gång hon låter köttet bestämma.”
― Lina Wolff, Djävulsgreppet

“When her body dries up it will all be over. What will I do then? she wonders. Then she remembers that suicide is always an option, and the thought provides sudden relief.”
― Lina Wolff, The Devil's Grip

“True, she only bears partial responsibility because the demon also has a hand in the game, but still, what a devilish grip she finds herself caught in, what a devilish grip she has allowed herself to be caught in. Cursed lust.”
― Lina Wolff

“You leaving already?” he says in response. “We haven’t even started talking.” There is something about the incomprehension in his tone, which sounds both genuinely confused and profoundly human, that makes her sit down again.”
― Lina Wolff, Carnality: A Novel

“He’s harmless, repulsive to everyone but her. He’s a harmless little fatty. She will look back on this time and state (bitterly) that there is in fact no such thing as a harmless little fatty.”
― Lina Wolff, The Devil's Grip

“Focusing on another person’s pain is impossible once you’ve started to bleed like she has.”
― Lina Wolff, The Devil's Grip

“Jag tycker om människor som kan se skönheten i ett välgjort system. Jag tycker om människor som kan se saker ur de administrativa systemens synvinkel. För man pratar alltid om systemet ur individens synvinkel, men aldrig om individen ur systemets synvinkel. Ur systemets synvinkel är individen alltid organisk och hopplöst behövande. Ur systemets synvinkel har individen alltid slagit sig på tummen med en stor hammare och behöver hjälp. Men sanningen är att individen är en myra, och ingen stoppar ett helt system för en myras helt betydelselösa smärta. Det vet jag nu.”
― Lina Wolff, Köttets tid

“...she also knows that the simple fact of having a thought can sometimes somehow give rise to a miniature reality of said thought, a reality that runs the risk of expanding and taking over one’s own.”
― Lina Wolff, The Devil's Grip

“Il pipistrello. It’s a funny word. Murciélago in Spanish, pipistrello in Italian, chauve-souris in French, bat in English, fladdermus in Swedish. It’s one of those words that doesn’t connect with itself in any way.”
― Lina Wolff, The Devil's Grip

“Hun ser faren. Mørket som ville tetne rundt dem, byen som ville komme på avstand, de to alene i leiligheten mesteparten av tiden. Hennes lengsel, hans makt.”
― Lina Wolff, Djävulsgreppet

“Ett dovt illamående rörde sig på botten av min mage. Jag kände igen det: det hade med närheten att göra. Jag mår illa när jag alltför snabbt kommer nära nya människor. Jag behöver tid. Drinkar på avstånd på stela mingeltillställningar, situationer som tillåter mig att betrakta i hemlighet, skapa mig mina uppfattningar ifred, som en spindel i en källares lugn sakta väver sin trygghet runt sig. Människor som öppnar sig alltför snabbt är som rutschkanor in i mörkret: all trygghet är inbillad och till slut faller man fritt. Jag kan mot dessa människor känna ett slags oförklarligt raseri, som om någon olovligen hårt och plötsligt pressat sin kropp mot min.”
― Lina Wolff, De polyglotta älskarna

“What is old age if not primarily the fear of no longer being relevant and of becoming an extra in a play in which you once played the lead role?”
― Lina Wolff, Carnality: A Novel