Yrsa Daley-Ward > Quotes

“Self expression is a tricky
thing. Just as you start to feel
comfortable with yourself after years
of not, you then have to justify
yourself to other people.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“You will come away bruised.
You will come away bruised
but this will give you poetry.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward

“If you are afraid to write it,
that's a good sign.
I suppose you know when you're
writing the
truth when you're terrified.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“If I’m entirely honest, and you say I must be I want to stay with you all afternoon evening, night and tomorrow pressed into you so tightly that we don’t know whose belly made what sound, whose heart it is that is thumping like that until I don’t know if the sweat on my chest is yours or mine or ours.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“The pastor makes twenty-four
references to hell
in the sermon at church and forgets
to talk
about love.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“It's never too late to be wise. Find someone who makes your feel like you're coming home.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward

“and anyway,
there will always be your breath
which, hard as you try,
you cant do without
you cant run away from.
There will always your heart
beating
stronger and louder
the harder, the further
you run.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“Smiling at devils is a useful, learned thing.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“The reason for leaving sometimes is to return. Simply to return.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward

“Maybe your life will work.
Most likely it won't at first
but that
will give you poetry.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“You are a beautiful danger. Do not force me to open up. Some books are bound tightly for years for reasons.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“Loving someone who hates
themselves
is a special kind of violence.
A fight inside the bones.
A war within the blood.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward

“When the blood in your body is
weary to flow,
when your bones are heavy though
hollow
if you have made it past thirty
celebrate
and if you haven't yet,
rejoice. Know that there is a time
coming in your life when dirt settles
and the patterns forma picture.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“It's never too late to be wise.
See how your spirit has been
fermenting.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“Remember on the right night and
under the right light
any idea can seem like a good one
and love
love is mostly ill advised but always
brave.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“The worst thing about somebody who betrays you, somebody who turns out to be a completely different person to whom you first thought, is the love that you still feel in your heart for them, embedded so deeply into the narrow spaces of yourself that you cannot access it to try and remove it. He”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“Do not go too far for peace and quiet do not run too far because the country can be as loud as the city too noisy in its stillness and anyway, there will always be your breath which, hard as you try, you cant do without you cant run away from. There will always be your heart beating stronger and louder the harder, the further you run.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“It is love. But I will not stay.
My father
was a long dark fairytale too.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“You are one of life's
anomalies
and this is
how I fell.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“You may have learned from your mother or any other hunted woman. Smiling at devils is a useful learned thing. Swallowing discomfort down in spades. Holding it tight in your belly. Ageing on the inside only. Keeping it forever sexy.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward

“You can't quell depression by making love. But we tried. But we tried, oh, we did.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“Just because you do it doesn’t mean you always will.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“See, nobody warns you about yourself.
The red in your eye.
The trap in your mouth.

The person who hurts you the most in the end will
be you.
Almost every time, you.

You'd better learn to forgive yourself.
Forgive yourself instantly.
It's a skill you're going to need until you die.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“what is now will soon be past Just because you do it doesn’t mean you always will. Whether you’re dancing dust or breathing light you’re never exactly the same, twice.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“intro I am the tall dark stranger those warnings prepared you for.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“and I think about
these parents of ours
our makers
our stars. (such impossible, complex stars.)
How they came, exploded, and fell away.

They are not ours, the stars,
and have never been.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, The Terrible: A Storyteller's Memoir

“plus there is that feeling you get when you catch up with yourself.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“when it is but it ain't

Some of us love badly.
Sometimes the love is the type of love that implodes.
Folds in on itself. Eats its insides.
Turns wine to poison.
Behaves poorly in restaurants.
Drinks. Kisses other people.
Comes back to your bed at 4am smelling like everything outside.
Asks about your ex. Is jealous of your ex.
Thinks everyone a rival.

Some of us love others badly, love ourselves worse.
Some of us love horrid, love beastly.
Love sick love anti light.
Sometimes the love can’t go home at night,
can’t sleep with itself, cannot contain itself,
catches fire, destroys the stomach,
strips buildings, goes missing.
Punches. Smashes heirlooms.
Tells lies. The best lies. F*s around.
Writes poems, impresses people.
Chases lovers into corners.
Leaves them longing. Sea sick.
Says yes. Means anything but.
Tricks the body.
Kills the body.
Dances wild
and walks away, smiling.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward

“See, they never held you back. It was you, only you.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, bone

“You may not run away
from the thing that you are.
because it comes and comes and comes as
sure as you breathe.
As certain. The thing is deep inside your linings,
way down in the marrow.”
― Yrsa Daley-Ward, The Terrible: A Storyteller's Memoir