Another Life Quotes

“Yes, the past is a foreign country," I said, "but some of us are full-fledged citizens, others occasional tourists, and some floating itinerants, itching to get out yet always aching to return."

"There's a life that takes place in ordinary time," I said, "and another that bursts in but just as suddenly fizzles out. And then there's the life we may never reach but that could so easily be ours if only we knew how to find it. It doesn't necessarily happen on our planet, but is just as real as the one we live by—call it our 'star life.' Nietzsche wrote that estranged friends may become declared enemies but in some mysterious way continue to remain friends, though on a totally different sphere. He called these 'star friendships.”
― André Aciman, Enigma Variations

“Why have we waited so long?"

I didn't know the answer. "Maybe because what we want hasn't been invented yet."

"Maybe because it doesn't exist."

"Which is why I dread how this ends."

"Good night," she said, turning her back to me, while I wrapped my arms around her.

"I know one thing, though," she said without turning around.

"What?"

"This doesn't end, whatever happens. Never, never ends." I tightened my arms around her. "Star love, my love, star love. It may not live but it never dies. It's the only thing I'm taking with me, and you will too, when the time comes.”
― André Aciman, Enigma Variations

“Our star life, yours with mine. As someone said over dinner once, each of us is given at least nine versions of our lives, some we guzzle, others we take tiny, timid sips from, and some our lips never touch.”
― André Aciman, Enigma Variations

“Perhaps there was another life, not so sad, that I missed somehow this time, and will have in another world.”
― Nick Harkaway, Gnomon

“I suppose a part of me wished when I put my key in the door, it would magically open into a different apartment, a different life, a place so bright with joy and excitement that I'd be temporarily blinded when I first saw it. I pictured what a documentary film crew would capture in my face as I glimpsed this whole new world before me, like in those home improvement shows Reva liked to watch when she came over. First, I'd cringe with surprise. But then, once my eyes adjusted to the light, they'd grow wide and glisten with awe. I'd drop the keys and the coffee and wander in, spinning around with my jaw hanging open, shocked at the transformation of my dim, gray apartment into a paradise of realized dreams. But what would it look like exactly? I had no idea. When I tried to imagine this new place, all I could come up with was a cheesy mural of a rainbow, a man in a white bunny costume, a set of dentures in a glass, a huge slice of watermelon on a yellow plate—an odd prediction, maybe, of when I'm ninety-five and losing my mind in an assisted-living facility where they treat the elderly residents like retarded children. I should be so lucky, I thought. I opened the door to my apartment, and, of course, nothing had changed.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation

“Now, how far away did Abingdon Square feel, as though it and she and the restaurant, and Maria Malibran, and the sudden false rainfall by the flickering lights of the Miramar hotel sign belonged to another life, a life unlived, a life I knew had turned its back to me and was being nailed to the wall.”
― André Aciman, Enigma Variations

“and at the end of decades
there they are
tea splashing clove strong from chipped cups
long skirts swaying around ankles
giggling from folding chairs in the town square
singing along
dancing to the didgeridoo
a joint passing between their smeared pink lips
leaning safe into the only arms they’ve ever trusted
all the way to the goddamn end”
― Stephanie Greene

“I wondered where those roads, in which the world diverged,
became the promises of another life,
the hilly embankment that touched the horizon in
tranquil virescent spikes, splattered with hazel lines,
that conquered truth and candour.”
― Phen Weston, Under the Rose

“In memories
and dreams
you and I
are still one.”
― Edward Lee

“He's moving with such purpose that William is scared he might just speed right off the rooftop, like the roadrunner from the cartoons. Or (the image comes with Magritteish lucidity) spread his arms and flap up into another life.”
― Garth Risk Hallberg, City on Fire