Clare Furniss > Quotes

“For now the world keeps turning and I keep breathing, in and out, in and out. I breathe in the life that is all around me, in this garden, in this city, in the fields beyond it, in the seas beyond them and the shores on the other side; life that reaches out towards the unreachable, unknowable space that is beyond all of us and the stars that burn there.”
― Clare Furniss, The Year of the Rat

“Our memories are what make us who we are. Some are real. Some are made up. But they are the stories that tell us who we are. Without them we are nobody.”
― Clare Furniss, How Not to Disappear

“They get quieter over the years. They still whisper to you sometimes, but the world gets louder. You can see it and hear it again. There's a gap in it, where they used to be. But you get used to the gap; so used to it that you can hardly see it. And then some days, out of nowhere, you're making the tea or banging out the washing or sitting on the bus and it's there again: that aching, empty space that will never be filled.”
― Clare Furniss

“The world may tip at any moment. But now that doesn't matter.”
― Clare Furniss

“Why is it so easy to know that someone else has fallen in love with a dangerous lunatic and so hard to tell when it's you?”
― Clare Furniss, How Not to Disappear

“I've learned over the years that they are stubborn things, hearts. They go on beating whether you want them to or not.”
― Clare Furniss, How Not to Disappear

“When someone you love first dies, they're all you can see, aren't they? All you can hear?
Blotting everything else out.
That changes. They get quieter over the years. They still whisper to you sometimes, but the world get louder. You can see it and hear it again. There's a gap in it, where they used to be. But you get used to the gap; so used to it that you hardly see it.
And then some days, out of nowhere, you're making the tea or hanging out the washing or sitting on the bus and it's there again; that aching, empty space that will never be filled.”
― Clare Furniss, The Year of the Rat

“I look at Gloria with her red hair and glass of champagne and expression of utter disdain and wonder how many expletives she'd manage to fit into a sentence if I asked her to teach me to knit or bake me a cake.”
― Clare Furniss, How Not to Disappear

“Oh Pearl," she says, "You're allowed to be happy. It's OK.”
― Clare Furniss, The Year of the Rat

“You shouldn't be wasting your time worrying about what's going to happen after you die. It's pointless. Think about what's happening now. In your life. That's what's important. So change the subject, will you?”
― Clare Furniss, The Year of the Rat

“You shouldn't be wasting your time worrying about what's going to happen after you die. It's pointless. Think about what's happening now. In your life. That's what's important. So change the subject, will you”
― Clare Furniss, The Year of the Rat

“For now the world keeps turning and I keep breathing, in and out, in and out. I breathe in the life that is all around me, in this garden, in this city, in the fields beyond it, in the seas beyond them and the shores on the other side; life that reaches out towards the unreachable, unknowable space that is beyond all of us and the stars that burn there.

The world may tip at any moment.

But for now that doesn't matter.”
― Clare Furniss, The Year of the Rat