Kate > Kate's Quotes

“So we must forgive all those Who trespass against us? Fuck that shit. I’m not some charitable trust. There are people I will hate Even after I’m ashes and dust.”
― Sherman Alexie, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

“Listen. I don't know how or when

My grieving will end, but I'm always
Relearning how to be human again.”
― Sherman Alexie, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

“This is who I am. This is who I have always been.

I am in pain.

I am always in pain.

But I always find my way to the story. And I always find my way home.”
― Sherman Alexie, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

“The Staging

In the weeks after my mother's death, I sleep
Four or five hours a night, often interrupted
By dreams, and take two or three naps a day.

It seems like enough. I can survive if I keep
This sleep schedule as it has been constructed
For me. But if it seems my reflexes are delayed,

Or if I sway when I walk, or weep or do not weep,
Please don't worry. I'm not under destruction.
My grief has cast me in a lethargic cabaret.

So pay the cover charge and take your seat.
This mourning has become a relentless production
And I've got seventy-eight roles to play.”
― Sherman Alexie, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

“Is the air okay?" I texted.

"It hurts a little to breathe," my sister texted back. "But we're okay."

Jesus, I thought, is there a better and more succinct definition of grief than It hurts a little to breathe, but we're okay?”
― Sherman Alexie, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

“....Dear friends, I am often a lonely man,

Even in a room full of people who love me. Dear friends, my brain--
Unpredictable as it was--is even more unpredictable now.
But thank God for all of the ways in which we compensate.
For our deficiencies.”
― Sherman Alexie, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

“I'm honored by your concern. I would like
To gather all of the books that contain
The words "mother" and "grief," set them aflame,
And dance as they burn.”
― Sherman Alexie, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

“You see that life will become a thing made of holes. Absences. Losses. Things that were there and are no longer. And you realise, too, that you have to grow around and between the gaps, though you can put your hand out to where things were and feel that tense, shining dullness of the space where the memories are.”
― Helen Macdonald, H is for Hawk