Robert James Waller > Quotes

“In a universe of ambiguity, this kind of certainty comes only once, and never again, no matter how many lifetimes you live.”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

“The human heart has a way of making itself large again even after it's been broken into a million pieces.”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

“This is why I'm here on this planet, at this time, Francesca. Not to travel or make pictures, but to love you. I know that now. I have been falling from the rim of a great, high place, somewhere back in time, for many more years than I have lived in this life. And through all of those years, I have been falling toward you.”
― Robert James Waller

“It's clear to me now that I have been moving toward you and you toward me for a long time. Though neither of us was aware of the other before we met, there was a kind of mindless certainty bumming blithely along beneath our ignorance that ensured we would come together. Like two solitary birds flying the great prairies by celestial reckoning, all of these years and lifetimes we have been moving toward one another.”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

“Analysis destroys wholes. Some things, magic things, are meant to stay whole. If you look at their pieces, they go away.”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges Of Madison County

“The old dreams were good dreams; they didn't work out but I'm glad I had them.”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

“The heart never forgets, never gives up, the territory marked off for those who came before. - "The Bridges of Madison County"
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― Robert James Waller

“We have both lost ourselves and created something else, something that exists only as an interlacing of the two of us. ”
― Robert James Waller

“Once a person knows a kiss and a kind word, you can't blame him for never wanting to live without them again. - "The Bridges of Madison County"
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― Robert James Waller

“if only we lost our minds and arrived at our hearts”
― Robert James Waller

“There are songs that come free from the blue-eyed grass, from the dust of a thousand country roads. This is one of them.”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

“The road is a strange place. Shuffling along, I looked up and you were there walking across the grass toward my truck on an August day. In retrospect, it seems inevitable - it could not
have been any other way-- a case of what I call the high probability of the improbable”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

“Complex things are easy to do. Simplicity's the real challenge.”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

“Such physical matters were nice, yet, to him, intelligence and passion born of living, the ability to move and be moved by subtleties of the mind and spirit, were what really counted.”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

“One great love in a single lifetime was enough for anyone.”
― Robert James Waller, A Thousand Country Roads

“When a woman makes the choice to marry, to have children, in one way her life begins but in another way it stops. You build a life of details. You become a mother, a wife and you stop and stay steady so that your children can move. And when they leave they take your life of details with them. And then you're expected to move again only you don't remember what moves you because no one has asked in so long. Not even yourself.”
― Robert James Waller

“no secrets, no mystery. no mystery, no life worth rememberin'. no life worth rememberin', no life worth goin' on.”
― Robert James Waller

“The reality is not exactly what the song started out to be, but it's not a bad song.”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

“The old dreams were good dreams; the didn't work out, but I'm glad I had them. - "The Bridges of Madison County"
”
― Robert James Waller

“It’s clear to me now that I have been moving toward you and you toward me for a long time. Though neither of us was aware of the other before we met, there was a kind of mindless certainty bumming blithely along beneath our ignorance that ensured we would come together. Like two solitary birds flying the great prairies by celestial reckoning, all of these years and lifetimes we have been moving toward one another.”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

“The marketing people are always talking about something called 'consumers'. I have this image of a fat little man in baggy Bermuda shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, and a straw hat with beer-can openers dangling from it, clutching fistfuls of dollars.”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

“Sometime I'm going to do an essay called 'The Virtues of Amateurism' for all of those people who wish they earned their living in the arts. The market kills more artistic people than anything else. It's a world of safety out there, for most people. They want safety, the magazines and manufacturers give them safety, give them homogeneity, give them the familiar and comfortable, don't challenge them.”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

“...realities that kept the music silent, the dreams in a box.”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

“Talisman, Talisman, show me your secrets,
Helmsman, Helmsman, turn me for home.”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

“And in that moment, everything I knew to be true about myself up until then was gone. I was acting like another woman, yet I was more myself than ever before.”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

“The old dreams were good dreams; they didn't work out, but glad I had them.”
― Robert James Waller

“The curse of modern times is the propensity of male hormones in places where they can do the most damage”
― Robert James Waller

“Sad mi je jasno da sam se već dugo kretao prema Tebi i Ti prema meni. Premda ni jedno od nas nije bilo svesno postojanja drugoga pre nego smo se upoznali. Za sve vreme u našoj je nesvesnosti radosno lutala neka slepa izvesnost koja je garantovala da ćemo se sresti. Poput dveju usamljenih ptica što svoj put preko golemih prerija pronalaze pomoću nebeskih znakova, tako smo se i mi sav svoj život kretali jedno prema drugom”
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County