Ismini Tornivouka > Ismini's Quotes

“She waited for the train to pass. Then she said, "I sometimes think that people’s hearts are like deep wells. Nobody knows what’s at the bottom. All you can do is imagine by what comes floating to the surface every once in a while.”
― Haruki Murakami, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: Twenty-Four Stories

“Death really did not matter to him but life did, and therefore the sensation he felt when they gave their decision was not a feeling of fear but of nostalgia.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

“She would defend herself, saying that love, no matter what else it might be, was a natural talent. She would say: You are either born knowing how, or you never know.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

“There is always something left to love.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

“Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I'm gazing at a distant star.
It's dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago.
Maybe the star doesn't even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything.”
― Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“You see I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there trying to forget the sad things that happened to me.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“I don't have a method. All I do is read a lot, think a lot, and rewrite constantly. It's not a scientific thing.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, Conversations with Gabriel García Márquez

“Then the writing became so fluid that I sometimes felt as if I were writing for the sheer pleasure of telling a story, which may be the human condition that most resembles levitation.”
― Gabriel Garcia Marquez

“Between skin and skin, there is only light.”
― John Fowles, The Magus

“Greece is like a mirror. It makes you suffer. Then you learn.'
To live alone?'
To live. With what you are.”
― John Fowles, The Magus

“The power of women! I've never felt so full of mysterious power. Men are a joke.
We're so weak physically, so helpless with things. Still, even today. But we're stronger than they are. We can stand their cruelty. They can't stand ours.”
― John Fowles, The Collector

“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

“Once upon a time there was a young prince who believed in all things but three. He did not believe in princesses, he did not believe in islands, he did not believe in God. His father, the king, told him that such things did not exist. As there were no princesses or islands in his father's domains, and no sign of God, the young prince believed his father.

But then, one day, the prince ran away from his palace. He came to the next land. There, to his astonishment, from every coast he saw islands, and on these islands, strange and troubling creatures whom he dared not name. As he was searching for a boat, a man in full evening dress approached him along the shore.

Are those real islands?' asked the young prince.

Of course they are real islands,' said the man in evening dress.

And those strange and troubling creatures?'

They are all genuine and authentic princesses.'

Then God must exist!' cried the prince.

I am God,' replied the man in full evening dress, with a bow.

The young prince returned home as quickly as he could.

So you are back,' said the father, the king.

I have seen islands, I have seen princesses, I have seen God,' said the prince reproachfully.

The king was unmoved.

Neither real islands, nor real princesses, I have seen God,' said the prince reproachfully.

The king was unmoved.

Neither real islands, nor real princesses, nor a real God exist.'

I saw them!'

Tell me how God was dressed.'

God was in full evening dress.'

Were the sleeves of his coat rolled back?'

The prince remembered that they had been. The king smiled.

That is the uniform of a magician. You have been deceived.'

At this, the prince returned to the next land, and went to the same shore, where once again he came upon the man in full evening dress.

My father the king has told me who you are,' said the young prince indignantly. 'You deceived me last time, but not again. Now I know that those are not real islands and real princesses, because you are a magician.'

The man on the shore smiled.

It is you who are deceived, my boy. In your father's kingdom there are many islands and many princesses. But you are under your father's spell, so you cannot see them.'

The prince pensively returned home. When he saw his father, he looked him in the eyes.

Father, is it true that you are not a real king, but only a magician?'

The king smiled, and rolled back his sleeves.

Yes, my son, I am only a magician.'

Then the man on the shore was God.'

The man on the shore was another magician.'

I must know the real truth, the truth beyond magic.'

There is no truth beyond magic,' said the king.

The prince was full of sadness.

He said, 'I will kill myself.'

The king by magic caused death to appear. Death stood in the door and beckoned to the prince. The prince shuddered. He remembered the beautiful but unreal islands and the unreal but beautiful princesses.

Very well,' he said. 'I can bear it.'

You see, my son,' said the king, 'you too now begin to be a magician.”
― John Fowles

“I think and think and think, I‘ve thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer

“And I'll dance with you in Vienna,
I'll be wearing a river's disguise.
The hyacinth wild on my shoulder
my mouth on the dew of your thighs.
And I'll bury my soul in a scrapbook,
with the photographs there and the moss.
And I'll yield to the flood of your beauty,
my cheap violin and my cross.”
― Leonard Cohen, Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs

“Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as a secrets to reveal. A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.”
― Leonard Cohen, The Favorite Game

“I have often prayed for you
like this
Let me have her”
― Leonard Cohen

“It’s a depressing habit you have of loving to sneeze and of eating apples as if they were juicier for you and being the first one to exclaim how good the movie is. You depress people. We like apples too.”
― Leonard Cohen, Beautiful Losers

“Kάποτε υπήρχε μόνο ένα νησί και τώρα πηγαίνουν όλοι σε κανένα νησί, να πάμε σε κανένα νησί, θα είναι σε κανένα νησί, θα ανακαλύψουν κανένα νησί. Η Βάνα θα βρίσκεται σε κανένα νησί αυτή τη στιγμή, θα πίνει κανένα ποτό. Πίνουν διάφορα ποτά, ταξιδεύουν σε διάφορα νησιά, έχουν συνεχώς την αίσθηση ότι δεν ήπιαν ακόμα τίποτα, δεν πήγαν πουθενά. Τα ανακατεύουν για να ξεχάσουν ότι υπάρχει μόνο ένα νησί, μια παραλία, ένα ποτό.”
― Χρήστος Βακαλόπουλος, Η γραμμή του ορίζοντος

“Δοκίμασα όλους τους άντρες και όλοι οι άντρες είναι ίδιοι, όλο τα ίδια και τα ίδια με χιλιάδες ονόματα"

Όταν υπήρχε μια εικόνα βαθιά φυλαγμένη μέσα σου όλοι οι άντρες ήταν διαφορετικοί.”
― Χρήστος Βακαλόπουλος, Η γραμμή του ορίζοντος

“Υπάρχει μόνο ένα νησί για τον καθένα, πρέπει να το βρει, να μείνει εκεί.”
― Χρήστος Βακαλόπουλος, Η γραμμή του ορίζοντος

“Οι Έλληνες ήξεραν να ντρέπονται μέχρι τον Ιούλιο του 1971, το είχαν μάθει από μικροί, το ήξεραν πριν γεννηθούν, είχαν γεννηθεί ντροπαλοί, αμήχανοι, ξενυχτισμένοι, καπνιστές, τραυματισμένοι, αθώοι, νευρικοί, ανήσυχοι, πληγωμένοι.”
― Χρήστος Βακαλόπουλος, Η γραμμή του ορίζοντος

“Οι άνθρωποι έβαλαν νερό στο κρασί τους και έλεγαν ψέματα διαρκώς στον εαυτό τους ότι η πιο όμορφη γυναίκα στον κόσμο δεν είναι μια γυναίκα αλλά μια φωτογραφία.”
― Χρήστος Βακαλόπουλος, Η γραμμή του ορίζοντος

“Ήταν πιο δύσκολο να είσαι η ωραιότερη στην Κυψέλη παρά η ωραιότερη στον κόσμο. Στην Κυψέλη σε έβλεπαν κάθε μέρα στο δρόμο, δεν σε ψήφιζαν βαμμένη, με μουσική από πίσω, ούτε σε γνώριζαν απ' τα περιοδικά, σε είχαν αγαπήσει χωρίς φωτογένεια.”
― Χρήστος Βακαλόπουλος, Η γραμμή του ορίζοντος

“Αυτό ήταν το μεγάλο κατόρθωμα της ανθρωπότητας, οι ελεύθερες σχέσεις, ο σεβασμός της προσωπικότητας, η ισότητα των δύο φύλων, το έλεγαν όλα τα περιοδικά, το βροντοφώναζαν οι πανεπιστημιάκες αναλύσεις, το υποστήριζαν οι διαδηλωτές στους δρόμους, το πρότειναν τα τραγούδια, το έβλεπαν στις ταινίες, το έγραφαν στα βιβλία, να του γυρίζεις την πλάτη, να της γυρίζεις την πλάτη, να έχεις πάντα μια δουλειά το πρωί.”
― Χρήστος Βακαλόπουλος

“Μ' αρέσει το καλοκαίρι που αναβάλλει το τέλος του. Μόνο στην Ελλάδα το βρίσκεις.”
― Χρήστος Αγγελάκος, Το δάσος των παιδιών

“Τον αγαπούσε όπως αγαπάμε κάποιον που δεν μπορούμε να συγχωρέσουμε”
― Χρήστος Αγγελάκος, Το δάσος των παιδιών

“Η αγάπη δεν είναι λίγο.”
― Νίκη Αναστασέα, Πολύ χιόνι μπροστά στο σπίτι