Nduu > Nduu's Quotes

“The man inhabited his solitude fully, and everything else was extraneous:he and his ship and his sea. In that second, if Ayaana had craved anything in her life, it was this:to be of this replete mosaic as an element component.”
― Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, The Dragonfly Sea

“Words. They had the strength to shut doors that would never be opened in this lifetime.”
― Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, The Dragonfly Sea

“Being human is a rare art; it is not given to all equally.”
― Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, The Dragonfly Sea

“The possibility of an immediate and wholesale decimation of civilisation was not half as frightening as the simple realisation that our individual passing had no impact on the order of things, and life would go on just the same with or without us.”
― Elif Shafak, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

“She had never told her friends this, not in so many words, but they were her safety net. Every time she stumbled or keeled over, they were there for her, supporting her or softening the impact of the fall. On nights when she was mistreated by a client, she would still find the strength to hold herself up, knowing that her friends, with their very presence, would come with ointment for her scrapes and bruises; and on days when she wallowed in self-pity, her chest cracking open, they would gently pull her up and breathe life into her lungs.”
― Elif Shafak, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

“within every sane mind there was a trace of insanity, and within the depths of madness glimmered a seed of lucidity.”
― Elif Shafak, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

“I've never fooled anyone. I've let people fool themselves. They didn't bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn't argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn't.”
― Marilyn Monroe

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Better than those mobile phones the young ones check hundreds of times a day which makes them go mental
She’s read about it in the paper
Besides, why replace her old phone when it’s still in good working order, sits on the console by the front door, attached to a wire that’s attached to a socket
Telephone conversations should be kept short and had standing
Far as she’s concerned”
― Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other

“(this is before we're living together, before we do the most faithful act of all, mix our separate books into one library)”
― Ali Smith, Artful

“We do treat books surprisingly lightly in contemporary culture. We’d never expect to understand a piece of music on one listen, but we tend to believe we’ve read a book after reading it just once.”
― Ali Smith, Artful

“Loneliness is personal, and it is also political. Loneliness is collective; it is a city. As to how to inhabit it, there are no rules and nor is there any need to feel shame, only to remember that the pursuit of individual happiness does not trump or excuse our obligations to each another. We are in this together, this accumulation of scars, this world of objects, this physical and temporary heaven that so often takes on the countenance of hell. What matters is kindness; what matters is solidarity. What matters is staying alert, staying open, because if we know anything from what has gone before us, it is that the time for feeling will not last.”
― Olivia Laing, The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone

“Speech failures, communication breakdowns, misunderstandings, mishearings, episodes of muteness, stuttering and stammering, word forgetfulness, even the inability to grasp a joke: all these things invoke loneliness, forcing a reminder of the precarious, imperfect means by which we express our interiors to others. They undermine our footing in the social, casting us as outsiders, poor or non-participants.”
― Olivia Laing, The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone

“Cities can be lonely places, and in admitting this we see that loneliness doesn't necessarily require physical solitude, but rather an absence or paucity of connection, closeness, kinship: an inability, for one reason or another, to find as much intimacy as is desired.”
― Olivia Laing, The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone

“Loneliness, longing, does not mean one has failed, but simply that one is alive.”
― Olivia Laing, The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone

“Talking so much you horrify yourself and those around you; talking so little that you almost refuse your own existence: a demonstrates that speech is by no means a straightforward route to connection. If loneliness is to be defined as a desire for intimacy, then included within that is the need to express oneself and to be heard, to share thoughts, experiences and feelings. Intimacy can’t exist if the participants aren’t willing to make themselves known, to be revealed. But gauging the levels is tricky. Either you don’t communicate enough and remain concealed from other people, or you risk rejection by exposing too much altogether: the minor and major hurts, the tedious obsessions, the abscesses and cataracts of need and shame and longing.”
― Olivia Laing, The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone

“(I)f we are going to be kind, let it be out of simple generosity, not because we fear guilt or retribution.”
― J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace

“When all else fails, philosophize.”
― J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace