Elizabeth’s Reviews > The Road Past Altamont > Status Update

"It's strange...what takes place in us as we live, the way the beings who gave us life continue, in us and through us, to struggle against each other, each wishing to have us completely on his side" (128).

"The notion that my desire might not always mean so much to me, instead of cheering me, filled me with anxiety. I began to realize that even our desires are not eternally faithful to us, that they wear out, perhaps die, or are replaced by others..." (93).

"I was undoubtedly happier than I had ever been before, but, as if it were too great, this unknown joy held me in a state of intense astonishment. I learned later on, of course, that this is the very essence of joy, this astonished delight, this sense of a revelation at once so simple, so natural, and yet so great that one doesn't quite know what to say of it, except, 'Ah, so this is it'" (64-65).

“Through it, at last, I think I began to understand vaguely a little about life and all the successive beings it makes of us as we increase in age” (30).