Page 81 Quotes

“In her novel Regeneration, Pat Barker writes of a doctor who 'knew only too well how often the early stages of change or cure may mimic deterioration. Cut a chrysalis open, and you will find a rotting caterpillar. What you will never find is that mythical creature, half caterpillar, half butterfly, a fit emblem of the human soul, for those whose cast of mind leads them to seek such emblems. No, the process of transformation consists almost entirely of decay.”
― Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost

“Perfection is a stick with which to beat the possible.”
― Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power

“Once upon a time there was a woman who was just like all women. And she married a man who was just like all men. And they had some children who were just like all children. And it rained all day.

The woman had to skewer the hole in the kitchen sink, when it was blocked up.

The man went to the pub every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The other nights he mended his broken bicycle, did the pool coupons, and longed for money and power.

The woman read love stories and longed for things to be different.

The children fought and yelled and played and had scabs on their knees.

In the end they all died.”
― Elizabeth Smart, The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals

“Patty believed that parents have a duty to teach their children how to recognize reality when they see it.”
― Jonathan Franzen, Freedom

“Jack of all trades, master of none...He'd always thought knowing many things gave him strength.
Now it made him feel vulnerable.”
― Rachel Caine, Ink and Bone

“disperazione - a word that in dialect meant having lost all hope but also being broke.”
― Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend

“I’d also compose poems of my own, the lines appearing in my head as they would on paper. I’d say them to myself again and again until they were cemented. But for some reason I cannot recite them now, when I have the paper to write them down. Maybe certain poems are meant only for oneself.”
― Lara Prescott, The Secrets We Kept

“Luke had smiled as he spoke, his eyes resting with seeming carelessness on the other’s face. But Dr. Thomas seemed quite unperturbed and smiled in return.”
― Agatha Christie, Murder Is Easy

“People were funny about the police. They gave lip praise to law and order, but its myrmidons brought an uneasy feeling even to the most innocent.”
― Dorothy B. Hughes, The Expendable Man

“What more could anybody want after a confession that orotund?”
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Deadeye Dick