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“He has a theory: When we travel, we actually take three trips. There’s the first trip of preparation and anticipation, packing and daydreaming. There’s the trip you’re actually on. And then, there’s the trip you remember. “The key is to try to keep all three as separate as possible,” he says. “The key is to be present wherever you are right now.” This advice, more than any, stays with me.”
― Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted

“Only when I was young did I believe that it was important to remember what happened in every novel I read. Now I know the truth: what matters is what you experience while reading, the states of feeling that the story evokes, the questions that rise to your mind, rather than the fictional events described. They should teach you this in school, but they don’t. Always instead the emphasis is on what you remembered. Otherwise, how could you write a critique? How could you pass an exam? How could you ever get a degree in literature? I like the novelist who confessed that the only thing to have stayed with him after reading Anna Karenina was the detail of a picnic basket holding a jar of honey. What stayed with me all this time after reading The Years was how it opened, with that first sentence, followed by a description of the weather.”
― Sigrid Nunez, The Vulnerables

“Vart ska vi fara? säger Johannes
Nej nu frågar du som om du fortfarande var vid liv, säger Peter
Inte till någon plats? säger Johannes
Nej dit vi nu ska, det är inte någon plats, och därför har den heller inte något namn, säger Peter
Är det farligt? säger Johannes
Farligt, nej, säger Peter
Farligt är ett ord, det finns inga ord där, säger Peter
Gör det ont? säger Johannes
Det finns inte kroppar där, så ont finns inte, säger Peter
Men själen, gör det ont i själen där? säger Johannes”
― Jon Fosse, Morgon og kveld

“For the person facing death, mourning begins in the present tense, in a series of private, preemptive goodbyes that take place long before the body’s last breath.”
― Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted