Still Life at Eighty Quotes

“THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WRITING has taught me is this: the more vulnerable you allow yourself to be, the stronger you become.”
― Abigail Thomas, Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing

“My life didn’t feel like a novel. It felt like a million moments. I didn’t want to make anything fit together. I didn’t want to make anything up. I didn’t want it to make sense the way I understand a novel to make a kind of sense. I didn’t want anywhere to hide. I didn’t want to be able to duck. I wanted the shock of truth. I wanted moments that felt like body blows. I wanted moments of pure hilarity, connected to nothing that came before or after. I wanted it to feel like the way I’ve lived my life. And I wanted to tell the truth. My truth doesn’t travel in a straight line, it zigzags, detours, doubles back. Most truths I have to learn over and over again.”
― Abigail Thomas, Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing

“I have spent the past year in this house, most of it in this chair. The weeks come and go, the sun rises and sets, the days are long then short then long again, and none of it means a thing to me anymore. I don’t even remember what I’m missing. The wisteria is a new way of measuring time. The vines! Now that I can watch its progress day by day, sometimes almost hour by hour, I can experience time passing. And at least something in this house is getting somewhere.”
― Abigail Thomas, Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing

“Detail is the antidote to boredom, and tends to keep depression at bay.”
― Abigail Thomas, Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing

“I’VE WRITTEN MEMOIR FOR YEARS now in spite of a poor memory. Maybe because of my poor memory.”
― Abigail Thomas, Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing

“I am comforted by remembering those of my friends who have died. I figure if they can do it, so can I.”
― Abigail Thomas, Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing

“It seems to me this is a statement that can apply to a lot of life: It isn’t comfortable, but it’s necessary.”
― Abigail Thomas, Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing

“It’s like being a dog. The minute they wake up, when they jump out of bed or slide off the couch, their tails are already wagging. They are expecting the next good thing. On the brink. Right around the corner. Any minute now.”
― Abigail Thomas, Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing

“Take this piece she’s writing now. Why is it in third person? She is sitting right there in her chair, it’s her fingers on the keyboard, why doesn’t she say so? Well, sometimes she needs to see herself in the distance, the past, for example, or the future, or in a sorry mood. And sometimes when the first person can’t think straight, the third person steps in. Also, she gets tired of herself, all that me me me. The third person is always handy, always willing. And it knows more than she does.”
― Abigail Thomas, Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing

“I’m more bothered by the idea of fearing death than I am afraid of dying. This is perhaps too fine a distinction”
― Abigail Thomas, Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing

“Sometimes we are starving to see every bit of what is right in front of us. —Brian Doyle”
― Abigail Thomas, Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing

“am comforted by remembering those of my friends who have died. I figure if they can do it”
― Abigail Thomas, Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing