Brenda Walker

“Maybe we're all like that with our mothers. They seem ordinary until one day they're extraordinary.”
― Lisa See, Shanghai Girls

“As far as I can see, only psychoanalysis can compete with Christians in their love of drawn-out suffering.”
― Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog

“There is always the easy way out, although I am loath to use it. I have no children, I do not watch television and I do not believe in God- all paths taken by mortals to make their lives easier. Children help us to defer the painful task of confronting ourselves, and grandchildren take over from them. Television distracts us from the onerous necessity of finding projects to construct in the vacuity of our frivolous lives; by beguiling our eyes, television releases our mind from the great work of making meaning. Finally, God appeases our animal fears and the unbearable prospect that someday all our pleasures will cease. Thus, as I have neither future nor progeny nor pixels to deaden the cosmic awareness of absurdity, and in the certainty of the end and the anticipation of the void, I believe I can affirm that I have not chosen the easy path.”
― Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog

“This pause in time, within time ... When did I first experience the exquisite sense of surrender that is only possible with another person? The peace of mind one experiences on one's own, one's certainty of self in the serenity of solitude, are nothing in comparison to the release and openness and fluency one shares with another, in close companionship ...”
― Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog