Ellen

“It’s because I don’t want to be platonic in relation to myself. I’m profoundly defeated by the world I live in. I separated myself just for a while because of my defeat and because I felt that other people were defeated too. So I closed myself up in an individualization that if I hadn’t been careful could have been transformed into a hysterical or contemplative solitude.”
― Clarice Lispector, An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures

“And Lóri thought that might be one of the most important human and animal experiences: asking mutely for help and mutely that help being given.”
― Clarice Lispector, An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures

“I shall try to conjure up each of the sentences engraved in my memory which were either so unbearable or so comforting to me at the time that the mere thought of them today engulfs me in a wave of horror or sweetness.”
― Annie Ernaux, Happening

“Nostalgia (from "nostos" - return home, and "algia" - longing) is a longing for a home that no longer exists or has never existed. Nostalgia is a sentiment of loss and displacement, but it is also a romance with one's own fantasy. Nostalgic love can only survive in a long-distance relationship. A cinematic image of nostalgia is a double exposure, or a superimposition of two images - of home and abroad, past and present, dream and everyday life. The moment we try to force it into a single image, it breaks the frame or burns the surface.”
― Svetlana Boym, The Future of Nostalgia