ramsacike’s Reviews > The Hour of the Star > Status Update

"And even sadness was the privilege of the rich, of those who could afford it, of those who had nothing better to do. Sadness was a luxury."

“Are there thousands of others like her? Yes, thousands of others who are mere accidents of nature. And if one thinks about it carefully, aren't we all mere accidents of nature? I have only escaped from a similar fate because I am a writer.”

“In truth, no matter how bad one's childhood may have been, it always sounds enchanted in recollection, how awful!”

“She found consolation in being sad. Not desperate, for she was much too modest and simple to indulge in despair, but that indefinable quality associated with romantics. It goes without saying that she was neurotic. Neurosis sustained her. Dear God, neurosis counted for something: almost as good as crutches.”

“things happen and you suddenly know. No one would teach her how to die one day: yet one day she would surely die as if she had already learned by heart how to play the starring role. For at the hour of death you become a celebrated film star, it is a moment of glory for everyone, when the choral music scales the top notes.”

“Perhaps she felt there was e glory in living. She thought that a person was obliged be happy. So she was happy. Before being born was she an idea? Before being born was she dead? And after being born was she about to die? What a thin slice of water melon.”

“Perhaps she felt there was e glory in living. She thought that a person was obliged be happy. So she was happy. Before being born was she an idea? Before being born was she dead? And after being born was she about to die? What a thin slice of water melon.”

“Prayer was a means of confronting myself in silence away from the gaze of others. As I prayed I emptied my soul - and this emptiness is everything that I can ever hope to possess. Apart from this, there is nothing. But emptiness, too, has its value and somehow resembles abundance.“