Liminality Quotes

“In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between them, there are doors.”
― William Blake

“The line between insanity and mysticism is thin; the line between reality and unreality is thin. Liminality as a spiritual concept is all about the porousness of boundaries.”
― Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays

“I wanted to be physically erased and start over again. I didn’t want to be here. I didn’t want to be there. I guess I wanted to be nowhere, I wanted to listen to my brain talk inside of nothingness. I wanted to be untouchable and have no need.”
― David Wojnarowicz, Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration

“Liminal moments. Those moments apart from time when you are gripped. Taken. When you are so fully absorbed in what you are doing that time ceases to exist.
Those early morning birthday moments were liminal, Sidda thought. Momma knew how to embrace liminality inspite of (or maybe because of) her emotional acrobatics. Momma taught me rapture.”
― Rebecca Wells, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

“I wish we could live the rest of our lives on these rocks,' I said. 'Why isn't it possible to just live at the edge of both, the ocean and the land?'
Of course I knew why. The edge was an uncomfortable and dangerous place for both of us. The rocks were nowhere to live. I had wanted him to come to my world for that same reason.
'One day these rocks won't be here,' he said. 'The ocean will waste them away.'
'Then we could find new rocks,' I said.
'Eventually you have to choose,' he said. 'That's how the story has always been and that's the way it will be forever.'
'But why?' I asked.
'Well,' he said, thinking, 'I guess because the choice is always there.”
― Melissa Broder, The Pisces

“When we enter the world of birth, we step across the threshold from the mundane to the sacred. Pregnancy and birth are a space between worlds — a liminal space — a place where you are no longer not a parent and not yet one either. This betwixt and between is sacred space within which powerful and profound events occur — often uninvited.”
― Britta Bushnell, Transformed by Birth: Cultivating Openness, Resilience, and Strength for the Life-Changing Journey from Pregnancy to Parenthood

“Cause everybody wants to be right in a world where there ain’t no right or wrong to be found. My side. He don’t listen to my side. Just like that chicken coop, everything’s got four sides: his side, her side, an outside, and an inside. All of it is the truth”
― Gloria Naylor, Mama Day

“How much of your life...
is balanced on the unseen?

Bridie's Tomb”
― Eleanor Rees, The Well at Winter Solstice

“Teardrop Swarm by Stewart Stafford

Entombed by verdant prison bars,
On land where I once held sway,
Drowned in Death's tearful surf,
In which we all get swept away.

Weep at a rock bearing my name,
A vacant space once familiar there,
Lost and lingered in limbo longing,
Planted in pastures, green and fair.

Arch headstones are defiant cliffs,
For Reaper's wrath to crash upon,
A foundling rage's pristine triumph,
In foam white light, multitudes gone.

© Stewart Stafford, 2024. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“The space at the bottom of the door was open.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, Borne

“Дж. Ф.: Подобные вещи меня очень интересуют – всегда интересовали. Через такие вот странные моменты мы ловим проблески чего-то, выходящего за пределы наших привычных представлений о мире; проблески восприятия, альтернативного нашему; по-моему, это очень ценная возможность, и за неё стоит держаться. Осознание того, что, возможно, в нашем восприятии есть пробелы, которые мы пока ещё не способны заполнить.”
― Марк Фишер, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

“A glitch in the matrix, a glitch in the algorithm, everyone stuck on repeat. Or maybe in retreat.
“I’m not really here,” Ania muttered again, and then she wasn’t.”
― BB Clifford

“We stood near something that wanted to become revelation but lacked the discipline.”
― Mira Hadlow, Nearly: Poems